Scuderia Ferrari will not bring any more upgrades for the F1-75 car, as confirmed by team principal Mattia Binotto. The Italian side introduced a different floor specification on the F1-75 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz for the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, which will be the last major upgrade for the 2022 Formula 1 championship, as Ferrari can no longer afford to invest resources for development gains.
Formula 1 teams have to carefully operate this season and no go over the budget cap limit of $140m, plus the extra three per cent which the FIA allowed taking into consideration the inflation. This means that all teams were forced to thoroughly evaluate any upgrades especially given the all-new ground effect aerodynamic cars which were designed based on the new rules and regulation for the current F1 campaign.
During the season, we saw teams take a different approach to how they introduced updates on their cars: Red Bull regularly brought changes and tweaks, while other teams opted for sporadic but major upgrades.
Scuderia Ferrari relied on the speed shown in the pre-season testing sessions and the start of the season, deciding not to bring any major changes to the F1-75 challenger during the first five rounds. The Maranello team then arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona with an important aero package for the Spanish Grand Prix, with focus on the floor and the car’s bodywork, as the Italian side tried to gain more in terms of downforce, while reducing the drag to be able to match Red Bull’s top speeds.
Since that moment, Ferrari made several updates to the rear wing and floor. According to unofficial sources, the Maranello team was forced to make some important changes to the floor after the FIA decided to introduce Technical Directive 39/22 starting with the Spa race in Belgium, which affected the ideal operating window of the tyres, leading to tyre degradation issues in this second part of the championship.
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In Japan, the floor underwent what was Ferrari’s last major upgrade of the current F1 campaign: Ferrari made changes to the design of the underfloor and the floor stakes for the Suzuka weekend where they also repositioned the floor stay, with positive feedback from the data gathered on track. Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto confirmed there will be no more upgrades on the F1-75 car in the last four races of the championship.
In a recent interview for Motorsport.com, Mattia Binotto explained that the Japanese Grand Prix updates “represents the last development of this season” with the Maranello team’s attention now shifted to the following Formula 1 campaign.
Mattia Binotto confirmed that this decision is based on financial reasons as the ‘last bit of budget Ferrari had has been used for technical developments to the car in Singapore and Japan. This latest development means Ferrari will not invest any more money in this year’s car as they are now at this season’s budget limit.’ – the report concluded.
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