Ferrari has found itself. The amazing support of the thousands of Tifosi at Monza served to recharge a team that suffered after the visible lack of competitiveness of F1-75 during the three previous races, not living up to fan expectations in a crucial phase of the 2022 Formula 1 season due to excessive tire degradation.
In the Italian GP, Ferrari proved it had found the way to extract from the car the potential that had been seen up until the French Grand Prix and which then suddenly seemed to have vanished. On the one hand there was a clear improvement for Red Bull and on the other hand there there was the “confusion” which hit the Ferrari Racing Department from Hungary to Holland with an unexpected “tire degradation”.
It was not clear how much impact the TD39 had on the F1-75 challenger and how much Ferrari made a mistake in its setup choices that led it so far off the road. According to FIA sources, the cars had to be raised by an average of two or three millimeters to respect the parameters of the algorithm which was introduced starting with the Belgian Grand Prix, so it should not have distorted the behavior of the cars, so much so that the Maranello technicians started to question whether it was the last evolution of the floor that could have created these issues.
Monza dispelled the doubts, confirming that the floor introduced at the Paul Ricard circuit is better than the previous one. But, then, how can one explain the fact that Red Bull with Max Verstappen made a significant step forward, while Ferrari had struggled, not so much in the flying lap, as in the race stints?
And one answer could be the following: Adrian Newey has fine-tuned an RB18 that is able to generate a lot of downforce even with a height from the ground that is not grazing the track, significantly improving its values every time it was able to get closer to the ground, while the F1-75 could be a more “pitch sensitivity” car. This would explain why in Spa-Francorchamps and Zandvoort, which are undulating circuits with ups and downs, the F1-75 car had a lot of difficulties, while the Ferrari car felt more ease on the flat Monza surface.
According to the technicians, the Italian race represents a new starting point and not just a favorable episode. The budget cap allows Ferrari two more development packages: the first will be introduced in Singapore, while the second, the last of the 2022 Formula 1 season, perhaps in Mexico.
Marina Bay Street Circuit represents the great opportunity to try to interrupt Max Verstappen’s series of victories: Red Bull now seems to have a superiority of a couple of tenths per lap in their pocket. The Dutchman won in “our home”, but Scuderia Ferrari seemed to be growing on a track that was always going to enhance the top speed qualities of the RB18.
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In Maranello they have two weeks to develop a high downforce package that will allow Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to lead the qualifying session in Singapore. Everyone is aware of how important it is to start from the front on a circuit where it is very difficult to overtake and it will be essential to be able to transfer the necessary energy to the tires. The simulations are more than optimistic and the Monza charge helped to revive an environment that was a bit depressed.
We can expect changes to the floor and wings, while the focus of the technical office has now shifted to the 2023 Formula 1 season. Next year’s car “… is starting well” admitted Mattia Binotto. The team principal, however, added that “that the season is not over and we will continue to fight for wins”.
