Scuderia Ferrari feels it was not able to match Red Bull in the in-season Formula 1 development duel due to the fact that the design of the F1-75 challenger meant Ferrari had a more complicated task in improving its car.
The Italian side began the 2022 Formula 1 championship with a strong car based on the performance seen in the pre-season testing session and Charles Leclerc confirmed the positive start by winning the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, two of the first three events this year.
Yet Ferrari was not able to take advantage of the strong pace in the following races and gradually fell behind Red Bull, who was able to quickly bounce back after the poor first few races and significantly improved the performance of its RB18 by reducing the weight and introducing important updated which allowed Max Verstappen to take the lead in the drivers’ championship and go won to easily secure the title.
The Red Bull man, who won the championship at the end of the Suzuka race, took a record 15 victories this season, being unstoppable in the second part of the season, with a cat that was far superior to Ferrari and Mercedes.
Asked about why the Austrian side was able to make better gains during the 2022 F1 campaign, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto pointed out that it was caused by the fact that the two sides had different areas of improvement on which they focused. At the same time, Mattia Binotto confirmed that Red Bull possibility to reduce the car weight, as the team started the season too heavy, was much easier to bear fruit than the Maranello team’s need to gain lap time with aerodynamic updates:
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“I think there have been a few factors,” – the Ferrari boss replied, when quizzed about why Red Bull’s in-season development process was better than the Italian side’s this year – “The first I think that, in terms of development, Red Bull had a clear route, which was reducing the weight of the car. This was not our case. They knew what [they needed] to tackle to get performance out of the car itself. For us it was more complicated because it was really through aero developments and trying to improve the car from the concept and the aero point of view. Also, I think if I look back, maybe the development we did was not certainly sufficient. We stopped very early; not only for a choice but because of expenditure reasons. But there are some things that we need to review.” – Mattia Binotto added.
Scuderia Ferrari confirmed several times in this final part of the season that the development process on its F1-75 challenger was ended early due to budget cap reasons and to focus on the 2023 project, aware that the title challenge against Red Bull was not possible in 2022.
Mattia Binotto admitted that how successful the Maranello team was in dividing its resources between this season and the next campaign can only be evaluated according to the performance and results of the 2023 F1 car: “Have we made the right choice by stopping so early, in terms of priority between 2022 and ’23? I don’t know. I think only 2023 can tell us what has been the right choice or not. More than that, maybe we could have done a better and proper development of the car, within what we did. And that is something which we need to review. But I think the main reason is Red Bull got a clear path, which was the weight reduction. I think it was more straightforward extracting performance from the car itself.” – he continued.
Despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari was disappointed for not being able to take the challenge to Red Bull for both championships this season, despite the strong start, Mattia Binotto wanted to look on the bright side and is happy that Ferrari remained fighting at the front for the whole championship:
“I think what was important for us was to be back to be competitive, and that was for us really the objective. For me, fighting for a good position at the 22nd race, is the best result, because it means that we have been competitive not only at the very start where we had a very strong car. No one would have expected it. But we kept on fighting during the season itself and up to the end. We had some ups and downs. There have been races where we have not been good enough, and we will review it. But I think more than P2 and P2 [in the drivers’ and constructors’ championship], what is important for me is the fact that, at the 22nd race, we were still fighting for good positions.” – Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto concluded.
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