“We knew in advance that we would have to compromise the car in Mexico.” Carlos Sainz after ending the qualifying session for the 2022 Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix in fifth position, far from Red Bulls and Mercedes at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, admitted that the Maranello team was aware of going through a very difficult weekend due to the altitude that affected the performance of its turbo and limited the F1-75 cars in terms of power.
“On the one hand, there were had a difficult weekend with the power unit due to our turbo size, which at that altitude with that thin air penalized us more than our opponents, at least for the type of mapping we used and so on.” – the comments of Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto made at the end of the twentieth round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Scuderia Ferrari boss was not afraid that the same situation could be seen again in Brazil, a track where the F1-75 should be able to challenge Red Bull and Mercedes at least for a place on the podium, if not for the race win, as long as they understand what went wrong in Mexico power unit apart – to end in a positive way a 2022 campaign that had started in an overwhelming way, with Charles Leclerc winning two out of the first three rounds, but then gradually fell apart as the season progressed.
“Thinking about Brazil it is a track like similar to the one in Austria, where I don’t think we were in difficulty – added Mattia Binotto – in Brazil at least regarding the power unit, I do not expect problems, but this does not mean that the problem in Mexico was only related to the engine. At the Mexican circuit, the power of the engine counts less than in other place. It’s not like Monza or Spa, although there is a straight and the engine performance does affect the lap, but less. The power unit is only part of the explanation, perhaps the minor one, there is so much more that we need to analyze to understand what went wrong in this race.” – Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto concluded.
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Ferrari still has 40 points to manage against Mercedes in the Constructors’ standings in the fight for second place which ahead of last weekend seemed over in favor of the Maranello team. The Italian side has to avoid another poor weekend like the one in Mexico City to defend its P2 in the last two rounds.
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