Scuderia Ferrari Racing Director Laurent Mekies admitted that the Italian side never considered improving their SF21 car to win the battle against McLaren for third place in the constructors’ championship, as the Maranello team’s main focus was on attacking the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Ferrari and McLaren were involved in a long and close battle for third in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull and eventual winners Mercedes, and the Italian team only sealed their podium spot on the final race of the season, in Abu Dhabi, at the Yas Marina circuit, but looked favourite to take P3 thanks to the strong display in the second part of the championship.
Laurent Mekies confirmed that the Maranello team never considered putting resources into developing the SF21 car, instead directing their energies behind the scenes on their 2022 project, which the Scuderia are confident will have enough speed to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull for the top spots next year when new regulations around car engineering come in to force:
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“The answer is no” – Laurent Mekies said, as reported by Autosport when asked whether the team had considered improving their 2021 model. “I think we made very clear from very early on, we took the decision to switch to 2022. We were hoping at the time, because we are quite distant from McLaren, which is early on in the season, we were hoping that we would be able to fight eventually for the third place. But we had chosen to make zero compromise for 2022. So that’s probably the most clean answer I can give you today. We have been asked that 25 times, and no way. The only development we had in the second half of the year was the hybrid, which again is something we’ll use for next year.” – the Ferrari Racing Director concluded.
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