The Belgian Grand Prix did not go as Scuderia Ferrari expected. The F1-75 car underperformed again and above all showed clear limits against Red Bull, for the first time in the 2022 Formula 1 season. If in Miami and at Imola it can be said that the cars were still close, with a minimum advantage for Red Bull over Ferrari, and in Hungary – albeit less than the Maranello team expected – the F1-75 car was still performing, in Spa-Francorchamps nothing seemed to go the right way for the Italian side.
Straight-line performance was not as good as the RB18, but not even the slower sector, the central one, was a hunting ground for the F1-75 cars; indeed, it is precisely in that part of the track that Red Bull and Max Verstappen made the difference. During the race, a clear limitation on tire wear emerged which is only the latest in a chain of problems that severely limited Scuderia Ferrari in Belgium.
Mattia Binotto says the new Technical Directive has not limited Ferrari, but is it really true?
The Ferrari team principal did not want to show an attitude of resignation or seem defeated, a situation that, understandably, is gripping the Prancing Horse fans right now. Mattia Binotto did make an analysis of the Grand Prix after the race, not dodging some uncomfortable questions, all those concerning the Technical Directive 39/22 – which we have extensively discussed in the last few weeks:
“I don’t know about others but the new Technical Directive has not affected our performance”, the Italian-Swiss engineer immediately stated firmly – “Spa-Francorchamps needs efficiency and power and right now we can say that Red Bull overall has the best package. In fact it managed, even with less wing than us, to be more competitive in the central sector and have better tire management than us. They were simply faster and stronger than us this weekend ”. In Maranello, analyzes of the problems that emerged in the Belgian Grand Prix are currently underway because they believe that at setup level the team could have done better, aiming for less conservative choices. Reverse-engineered simulations are very important to understand what could have been done better.
Officially and unofficially, Ferrari continue to deny that the TD39 / 22 hit the F1-75, however there are signs that should not be overlooked. Let’s start by saying that the gap of over one second per lap is still not very real, as stated by Mattia Binotto himself. “Spa is a track of almost 2 minutes and often here 8 tenths of gap would be 3 tenths elsewhere. This track then enhances the strengths and limitations of cars. We hope to be closer in the next races.”
Ferrari has certainly brought a car higher than usual to the track to avoid wearing too much the floor at the Eau Rouge, precisely that part more strictly controlled with the introduction of the Technical Directive number 39, with an extra impact also in terms of drag. A problem? No, considering that the Italian car had proved to be quite versatile in operation at different heights from the ground. Not at the level of Red Bull, which has been best at keeping the downforce as constant as possible by varying the heights from the ground, but certainly much better than Mercedes, which has to push its W13 as low as possible to make it work at its best.
Coupled with a higher ground clearance, Ferrari showed up in qualifying and the race with a stiffer suspension than normal which did not marry particularly well with the high pressures of the Pirelli tires. Due to a certain lack of aerodynamic and mechanical load, and not of balance (this is very important to underline), the lower specification of the rear wing, as well as of the beam wing, was not used. A specification that had not been brought only for a data collection in view of Monza but was intended to be the wing to be used at Spa. The update brought to Belgium was designed to reduce the speed gap in the straight by a few km / h, but above all, it would have further mitigated the porpoising that was seen in a very accentuated way on the F1-75, after that in the last few rounds, let’s take Austria as an example, it had practically disappeared. It is curious to underline that one of the functions of the flexible skid block was precisely to dampen and reduce the frequencies of the bouncing in addition to the possibility of reducing the wear of the board while running with lower ground heights.
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Still talking about skate wear, during the race Carlos Sainz was often asked to avoid bumps in some corners – even if the same happened with Max Verstappen – and Mattia Binotto confirmed that the reason was precisely linked to that macro component. “We just wanted to be calm about the wear of the board, which the FIA has already promptly checked, confirming its regularity.”
If practically all the teams have had to modify their underbody due to the new technical directive, which has further regulated the areas around the floor flexibility control holes, there are indications that Ferrari also had to modify the setup as compared to the previous races to fall within the new limits imposed, as explained by Paolo D’Alessandro and Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno. This, combined with the almost unique characteristics of Spa in terms of mechanical set-ups, the fact that the circuit was certainly not one of those favorable to the F1-75 and the failure of the set-up designed for the simulator in the factory, led the Italian team to become third force on the track in Sunday’s race.
