Ferrari and tyre wear: Mattia Binotto explains how team was able to cure problems. Ferrari and tyre wear.

Take one step back to be able to take two steps forward. In this way we could summarize, in a sort of popular saying, the strategy applied by Scuderia Ferrari to try to reduce the severe tire wear problem that had emerged in the early part of the season and especially in the French Grand Prix. On the occasion of the Paul Ricard race, both Maranello drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who started fifth and seventh respectively on the grid, had sadly slipped out of the points zone at the end of the Grand Prix. A clear collapse that fortunately both reds never repeated, showing a much greater competitiveness in the two Austrian races, at Silverstone and also in the ‘crazy’ race in Budapest, albeit with Carlos Sainz alone on the Hungaroring track.

Speaking for the official Formula 1 website, it was the Maranello team principal himself, Mattia Binotto, who gave an explanation of the progress shown by the SF21 in terms of tire wear. The solution highlighted by the Ferrari boss appears as simple as it is – evidently – effective. “What we found in the end is very simple. If you wear your tires, it is because you are sliding. If you are sliding, there can be two reasons and these reasons can be related to the set-up. You can refine the rear of the car when braking, have good stability behind but a car that understeers” – explained Mattia Binotto.

By working on the set-up of the car and having the two drivers adapt to a different car setting, Ferrari seems to have overcome the obstacle. “We tried to have more balance in terms of understeer and oversteer – added Mattia Binotto – we tried to slip less on the front, to manage the tires better in this sense. I think that any step taken in this direction has turned out to be in the right direction to cope with tire wear. ” “We could have slightly compromised the pace on the single lap – concluded the manager of the Maranello team – but not by much. I think it is also up to the drivers to adapt to a different type of set-up and they are doing it. We ourselves are learning a different kind of balance to use.” – he concluded.