The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship restarts from Silverstone. Max Verstappen increased his championship lead by winning the Canadian Grand Prix, ahead of Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc was able to minimize the damage by finishing in the top five, after starting from nineteenth position. Furthermore, Sergio Perez’s retirement allowed Ferrari to nibble a few points on the rival team in the Constructors’ classification.
Scuderia Ferrari will go on the attack, convinced they have a car that can put them in a position to fight for the race win on every type of circuit, but Red Bull remains a tough opponent. The updates brought by the teams are gradually getting the cars similar to each other, albeit with different projects.
The ranking does not reward Ferrari, but the F1-75 proved to be a winning car
Spain, Monte Carlo, Baku and Canada: three victories for Max Verstappen and one for Sergio Perez. Seeing these data, one would say: is the world championship already won by Red Bull? No. First of all, it should be emphasized that there were three Ferrari pole positions, taken by Charles Leclerc, in these appointments; the only exception is Canada where the Monegasque did not take part in Q2 and Q3. Furthermore, in Barcelona and Azerbaijan, Charles Leclerc was leading the race until the moment of retirement due to two power unit failures, which triggered the reliability alarm at Ferrari.
What gives Maranello confidence, however, is the performance of the F1-75 that responded well to the updates introduced in Spain – especially the new floor – which gave the hoped-for improvements and allowed a leap in performance that served to respond to the weight loss of the RB18, as the Austrian team had more easily unlockable performance. It is increasingly difficult to improve a good basic car with technical updates, rather than doing it through a ‘simple’ slimming cure. In Maranello they have done an excellent job so far. In Canada, the introduction of the rear wing designed for Silverstone and used in Montreal by Charles Leclerc alone was also anticipated, for better overtaking effectiveness.
Will we see more updates on the F1-75 in the second part of the season? According to what has been understood, yes. Meanwhile, Christian Horner said he was “curious to see them”, replying to Mattia Binotto, Ferrari team principal, who had instead spoken of an answer that Ferrari will be able to give to the important Red Bull package. Will there really be this big step forward for the Anglo-Austrian team? It would not seem.
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The budget cap is a real problem for all teams and the Ferrari approach this season has always been to introduce the updates that have given a clear and evident gain. In the last period, work has focused on improving the efficiency of the F1-75 and in this sense the containment of porpoising has allowed the team to gain performance from Spain onwards, and the new design of the rear wings has increased efficiency with DRS open, the main weakness of the F1-75 in the first part of the world championship. Ferrari proved to have a car with a chance of victory in almost all circuits, but aerodynamic efficiency was a limit in Jeddah, Miami and Canada, where the same rear wing was always used.
At Silverstone, Ferrari will again find the hardest tires in the Pirelli range, which so far it has managed better than its rivals for the world championship, even if the other pressure requirements are instead more of a limit for the F1-75 than for the RB18 as it will take more energy to activate the tires and avoid graining.
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