For the F1-75, the main is at a baseline level and cannot be solved this seasin. The pace lost in the United States Grand Prix due to tyre degradation was not gradual, as in previous races, but it manifested itself suddenly, depriving Charles Leclerc of the hope of completing a comeback from 12th place on the grid and fighting for the race win with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas
Charles had to admit defeat against a challenging Max Verstappen and then had to manage his race pace due to the degradation of the tyres (in Austin the rear also suffered) to at least be able to manage the gap to Sergio Perez and take home an excellent third place which, judging by the comments after the race, was a result lower than expected, despite the fact that he started from outside the top ten.
The evolution of the Ferrari F1-75 has led to generating more energy on the front Pirelli tires, but unlike what one might think, the F1-75 cannot afford to soften the mechanical set-up due to the constraints deriving from these suspensions, to satisfy the needs of tires that must remain in the correct operating window to ensure the best behavior, and must not be stressed with sliding and loss of traction that generate harmful overheating.
Some have thought that this negative effect is a reflection of the introduction by the FIA of the technical directive TD39, but if the car is raised from the ground to limit porpoising, the aerodynamic load decreases, so Ferrari would need to be able to manage the stiffness of bars and shock absorbers, were it not for the fact that ground-effect need to be as hard as “irons”, while Pirelli tires do not like the stress that would result from it.
Finding the right compromise means having Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in hand, who is chasing the record of victories in a Formula 1 season.
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The Maranello technicians have not been able to find a solution even by acting inside the front corner, expelling the hot air generated by the disc without being radiated through the rim to the tires so the performance of the F1-75 is less stable than that of the RB18, although on a flying lap the car is still impressive, with 12 pole positions out of 19 races which have taken place so far.
And if the difficulty to improve the Ferrari 2022 car may derive from the suspension, let’s get ready for the idea that the Maranello team may change the layout of the front suspension of the 675 project, the design code for the F1 2023 car.
Over time in Maranello they have remained anchored to very, perhaps too, traditional concepts and the data which is being collected on track indicates that it would be worth changing some concepts such as the double overlapping triangles, perhaps choosing multi-link joints and perhaps switching to the pull-rod design following the path courageously taken by Red Bull and McLaren (with fewer results).
It must be said that during the design phase of the ground-effect single-seater, the Maranello technicians had already analyzed the feasibility of the front pull rod, so if they were to decide to change the layout, they will not start from scratch, especially since in Maranello they had been the last to field single-seaters with the front linkage in the four-year period that went from 2012 to 2015 with the F2012, F138, F14T and F15T cars.
The fact that Ferrari is evaluating this possibility does not necessarily mean it will do so, considering that there is a very strong traditionalist wing within the Racing Department. The time for decisions is very limited …
Anyone who thinks that the 2023 single-seaters will only be evolutions of those we see racing on the track is very wrong, because even Mercedes has made it known that the W14 will represent a completely different project from the W13.
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