The hard blow suffered by Scuderia Ferrari last weekend in the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring circuit basically cancelled any hope the Maranello team might have had regarding a possible comeback in the fight with Red Bull for the 2022 Formula 1 world championships. Max Verstappen now enjoys a huge 80-point advantage at the top of the standings ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix and it goes without saying that no matter how much Charles Leclerc would try to give his best in the second part of the season, the scenario that is looming is really difficult to change.
There is a whole summer break to forget, or rather to try to live with the bitter turn that events have taken, and complete the second half of the season at least with dignity.
It is useless to go in search of various “why” or “how”, the current situation is the result of a chain of wrong dynamics in which everyone has played a part, including the drivers; certainly the powerful echo of the latest drama is the tip of the iceberg of a situation that has already shown itself to be creaky in other weekends, although attempts have been made to keep up appearances.
What was missing last weekend, even though team principal Mattia Binotto tried to justify the performance by pointing to the lack of speed of the F1-75 car, was certainly a solid pit wall with strong nerves and the ability to take the right decision in a few moments, without taking into consideration just the data from the simulations, but also a general feeling of the events on track.
It is very simple to claim to you want to take a one-two finish ahead of the race weekend, just like it is very simple to fall into drama: on the other hand, when you have to prove that you live up to the name that you represent (well …), in Ferrari you have the only certainty which is where things go wrong. And this is exactly what is never lacking at Red Bull: that reliable solidity of every part that makes up the team. The RB18 may not be the most suitable car for adapting to each circuit, but it certainly has a first driver, a team principal, a pit wall and a master of strategies, literally masterful.
Or rather, a “boss” of strategies: Hannah Schmitz, 37, graduated in mechanical engineering from Cambridge, is the winning key behind every Red Bull triumph. She is the one who takes those drastic decisions that in a few seconds can make the team lean towards yet another victory or (when ever) defeat. Solid, reliable, a war machine in withstanding stress: and to think that her clone in Ferrari is Iñaki Rueda.
In short, a true leader able to keep everyone’s opinions in balance, and then combine them together, conveying them towards successful strategies: “Ours is a very collaborative team: every opinion and point of view is taken into consideration. It is not just numbers or data provided by the engineers, the drivers themselves have their own feelings too, and it is right that we consider that too. Any factor must be taken into account, we discuss anything, and even if ultimately it is the strategist who makes the final decision, it is important to analyze as much information as possible.” – he explained.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
It is clear that from her words there emerges a certain involvement on the part of every sector, a factor that perhaps could be lacking at Ferrari.
Precisely in this regard, when asked about the Maranello team’s error in Hungary, she explains: “Ferrari started with medium tires and went into difficulty because consequently they only had hard or soft tires, and therefore they had problems in deciphering this situation. We, on the other hand, started with a set of soft tyres and we had two sets of mediums to complete the entire race: the mediums turned out to be the best tires for the victory.”
Perhaps a veiled way to bring attention to the fact that already from the data provided by the Alpine team, it was possible to understand that the hard tyres would not have been performing as desired.
Finally, she concludes in an extremely politically correct way: “I don’t want to say anything bad about anyone in reality, what little I know is that I think it’s easy to take the correct decision in hindsight …”.
Leave a Reply