For Scuderia Ferrari, the 2022 Formula 1 season has once again brought into attention a dynamic that was already seen in 2017 and 2018: an amazing start with a few race wins at the beginning of the season and then a gradual drop behind their main rival due to ‘losing’ the battle of car development in the two-year period 2017-2018 with Mercedes and in 2022 against Red Bull.
Adrian Newey said he was convinced that during the year the Milton Keynes team improved the RB18 more than the men from Maranello did and Sebastian Vettel also underlined that his famous mistake he made at Hockenheim would not have made a difference in terms of winning the title due to the significant improvement of the W09 car.
Why are developments during the current season a problem in Maranello? When questioned by the quotidiano.net website, engineer Luigi Mazzola, who worked for a long time at the Scuderia Ferrari team, answered as follows whether it was a matter of people or the tools available: “Human skills are crucial. So in my opinion Ferrari needs a philosophical change, which puts an authoritative boss who knows the dynamics of a car at the center of the structure, which is a synergy of components, from the chassis to the aerodynamics, from the engine to the tyres. And that he knows how to give the working group a winning mentality”. – former Ferrari engineer Luigi Mazzola explained.
Since it is not possible to carry out private tests during the season with the exception of the handful of kilometers available for commercial reasons, according to Luigi Mazzola it is essential during the race weekends to know how to perfectly internalize every car data that emerges from the track: “It’s crucial to be able to identify the indications that come from the track, from the Grand Prix weekend. All the more reason today because there are no longer free tests and the regulations are restrictive”, he added.
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The new simulator has certainly allowed Ferrari to prepare the race weekends with great efficiency, arriving on the track with set-ups that are most often already performing. However, as the season progressed, testing on the new surfaces sometimes made it difficult for the Scuderia to be competitive in all the weekend sessions, with the Mexican Grand Prix being the worst in terms of speed for several factors on the track.
According to Luigi Mazzola, what Ferrari has lost is a ‘chemistry’ that Ross Brawn had managed to create: “From my point of view, after the exit of a charismatic person like Ross Brawn, in Maranello there was no longer a leader capable of uniting and motivating the available human resources. And a lot of knowledge has been lost over the years.” – the current performance coach and company testimonial concluded.
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