Scuderia Ferrari does not feels it’s F1-75 car for the 2022 Formula 1 season is able to successfully challenge Mercedes and Red Bull for race victories just yet, despite the fact that the Maranello team showed a strong display in the pre-season testing session which took place at the Bahrain International circuit a few days ago.
The Italian side was satisfied with how the events at in the Barcelona and Bahrain testing sessions unfolded, with a lot of laps completed by Ferrari and no technical issues, which made many paddock insiders hint that it has the strongest package at this stage of the 2022 championship.
Ferrari is aware it has made good progress with it’s F1-75 car as compared to the last seasons, but team principal Mattia Binotto admits that any talk of it being the team to beat is far from true. Mattia Binoitto warns that rivals ar trying to out pressure on Ferrari by praising the Maranello team’s prospects, while it is almost impossible to have an accurate view of where everyone stacks up right now ahead of the first Grand Prix in 2022:
“I’m not myself capable of judging the others,” he said. “But we should be very good to judge ourselves and I don’t think we will be [the] winner. I think both Red Bull and Mercedes have very strong and fast cars, and those teams are very strong as well. I can see that even on the last day [of the test] Red Bull have brought upgrades to their car, proving and showing how good they are in the development, which is critical from now to the first race. Maybe Mercedes as well will improve further. So they are very strong, very fast and I hope that we can be outsiders. I hope that we can somehow try to challenge them. That would be great from our side.” – he explained.
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Scuderia Ferrari does not want to be seen as a potential title challenger this season, but Charles Leclerc did admit that the 2022 pre-season build-up has been the most productive he can remember since he moved to the Maranello team three years ago:
“It’s definitely one of the smoothest preparations I’ve had for a season, with no major issues. Especially on such a new project, you always expect to find some barriers on the way and for now, without porpoising, which is still kind of an issue in some conditions, it’s been quite smooth. We managed to just keep improving. But as we’ve seen, I think Red Bull have quite a new package and Mercedes had a completely new car, and didn’t really show their potential. Everyone seems to be quite close at some point or another. So it’s very, very difficult to know how much they have in margin. We know how much margin we have, but we have no idea how much they hide their gains.” – the Monegasque driver added.
However, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto is aware that the team’s ultimate target is to constantly fight for race victories which means that it is very important for the team to go aggressive with its upgrade push: “I think that we always need to do a further step,” he said. “I think you cannot be self confident at all, and I think you need always to try to develop and improve yourself in Formula 1. We know that our competitors are very, very strong and have proved to be as well very fast. I’m expecting them to be ahead at the first race. For us it’s to try to challenge them as much as we can, and hopefully we can fight as well together with them, and that will be great at least for the start of the season. But then development will be key for the rest of the season.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.
