No break for Ferrari and its drivers: even on Monday, after two very intense weeks with the victories at Silverstone and in Austria, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in Maranello, due to commitments for the Ferrari sponsors. Halfway through the European tour before the summer break, the Maranello team has secured two victories with different drivers on different tracks, and that says a lot about the potential of the car, according to Daniele Sparisci for corriere.it.
The enemy is reliability, an invisible threat that will accompany every race. Starting with the next one in France, at Paul Ricard, which is very demanding for power, while in this respect Budapest will be calmer. The third success of the 2022 Formula One season has restored confidence and the rank of team leader to the Monegasque, now ahead of his teammate by 37 points. Charles Leclerc urged the team to win them all from here to the end, as his exuberant character pushes him to extremes, for better or for worse. But this time the team principal also confirmed: “It is obvious that we believe in the two World Championships: we are a strong team from every point of view: technical, drivers, mechanics, pitstops”.
His counterpart at Red Bull, Christian Horner, says that after Monza the fight for the title will already be over. The reply came the head of the Ferrari Racing Department: “I don’t think so, it will be a tight season, not everything is decided in the next five races. Only at the end will we draw conclusions.”
Where does this confidence come from? Not only from the effectiveness of the most recent developments, but also from the ability to understand the car. Behind Charles Leclerc’s triumph there is a great deal of data analysis that made it possible to set the race on a much more aggressive tactic than that chosen for the Sprint Race won by Max Verstappen.
In 24 hours – net of the time lost in the duel between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at the start – the balance of power between Ferrari and Red Bull was reversed. How? From the study of the parameters collected on track and those provided by the remote garage in Maranello – the engineers were at work until late at night with Charles – Verstappen’s weak point emerged. With that type of tires, the medium, he would have suffered a greater degradation than his rivals, if attacked immediately. That’s why number 16 went hunting after a few laps. The opposite of what he had thought in the Sprint: managing and then attacking in the final laps.
“We knew where we needed to improve, we stayed late, the efforts paid off,” he explained. The other milestone was to match the top speed of the Red Bull, making the DRS more effective through a new rear wing introduced in Canada on the number 16 car alone, and then also on the other F1-75 car at Silverstone.
The technical menu is essential for the comeback. The new hybrid part is expected at Spa or Monza, designed to give more energy within one lap, according to corriere.it
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In the meantime Ferrari has to live with the issue affecting its thermal components, as Carlos Sainz’s failure was similar to that of Charles Leclerc at the Baku City Circuit – turbo and Mgu-h, where operating temperatures are very high – (and to those that occurred this winter in the test benches), given the fact that there is no quick solution, as confirmed by Mattia Binotto. Except that of using new parts (and taking penalties). Carlos Sainz’s unit “exploded” twice before igniting the fire.
“We pushed hard on performance knowing that the power units would be frozen until 2026. I am confident also thinking about the next seasons” – Mattia Binotto pointed out.
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