At the end of the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, most of the focus and criticism was directed to Scuderia Ferrari’s clear strategy mistake of calling Charles Leclerc to the pits and mounting the Hard tyres as the Maranello team attempted to cover the pit stop of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. It became immediately clear that Charles Leclerc was losing an awful lot of time, which he was of course not able to make up and as a result, the Monegasque driver lost not only the chance to fight for the race win at the Hungaroring racetrack in Mogyorod, but even a place in the top five, making it the third time this season when Charles lost valuable points due to strategy errors.
After the race, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto did not want to focus on the strategy decisions, but rather pointed out to the fact that for the first time this season, the F1-75 cars did not have the pace to challenge Red Bull in the race. F1 expert Paolo Filisetti takes a look at whether Mattia Binotto’s comments at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix are partially true, as the Ferrari boss felt the F1-75 cars were not working properly and that the whole spectrum of tyres were not functioning well on Sunday in Budapest.
Evaluating the first two stints at Hungaroring, the F1-75 car seemed to be competitive. This can be said at a first look, because in order to be able to accurately evaluate the pace, we need to compare it with the speed of its rivals at the same stage of the race. However, taking into consideration the moment Charles Leclerc passed the Mercedes of George Russell and how the move was performed, some doubts start to creep in.
If we look back at the data from Friday practice and the great speed shown by the Ferrari cars in the long run simulations, Charles Leclerc should have been able to pass George Russell more easily, without spending so many laps behind him. Yet the set-up did not work as well in the cooler temperatures as it did on Friday in warmer conditions, with tyres being subjected to a temperature almost 20 degrees lower than they did on Friday in Budapest.
The higher air density, alongside a ride height that was too low (given the higher air pressure) led to a loss of downforce for the F1-75 cars. It was most likely not a huge loss, but it will have been distributed evenly between the front and rear of the car. This means that the overall balance of the Ferrari challengers did not vary too much, but it had in terms of traction and drag. This was partly illustrated by a lower top speed. At the same time, the colder conditions partly disguised the lack of traction.
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As always, colder tarmac leads to less grip, so traction out of corners was already a bit less for everyone. This meant that all signs regarding the Ferrari set-up not being ideal were so minimal that they only became more visible following a several laps, which could be the explanation as to why the Maranello team’s mechanics did not realize how the situation was unfolding on track until it was too late, given the fact that the reduced performance could normally be attributed to the lower temperatures, rather than the wrong set-up.
They probably only understood this in the very last stint of the Hungarian Grand Prix, when they called Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in for a new set of Softs, without any effect other than a few fast laps as the drivers returned to the track, but quickly losing the pace, especially in the case of the Spaniard. While strategy was mainly to blame for Charles Leclerc losing out on at least a second place finish at the Hungaroring, the set-up was also partially wrong for the weather conditions encountered in Mogyorod last Sunday.
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