Ferrari and customer teams will use a new clutch system from the 2022 French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, with the goal of improving start performance off the grid.
While Ferrari has had some decent starts (but very few great starts), Alfa Romeo, one of two customer teams that use the Maranello team’s power units in addition to the works team, have struggled with race start performance in this first part of the 2022 Formula 1 championship, as compared to their rivals in the midfield zone.
During the press conference on Thursday afternoon ahead of the French Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas confirmed that Ferrari had brought a new clutch to try and address the issues which led to some poor starts off the line effectively.
He explained: “We have a new clutch here, finally. We will try it in the practice for the first time. This is something that Ferrari has been working on for quite some time. Now, finally, we have some new bits for the clutch that should prevent the oscillations we’re having.” – the Finnish driver added.
Asked to comment on the how big the impact of these were in 2022 so far and how much their engine provider’s clutch issues had affected them during the start of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign, the former Mercedes driver admitted it had been “quite a big compromise. We have tended to lose positions, on average, at the start and that’s not great because the midfield is so tight that once you drop behind somebody, then you’re stuck for like 20 laps,” he explained. “It doesn’t make your life easier. So hopefully [now] it’s okay.” – Valtteri Bottas added.
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Scuderia Ferrari’s own performance in terms of race start could have been much better this season, Spanish driver Carlos Sainz admitted: “We’ve identified an issue on our car here that is not allowing us to perform the starts that we were doing last year and probably is affecting our fellow engine team mates. But we know where the problem lies. We’re keeping it very private and we don’t speak a lot about it because it’s not like in every start we are falling back or anything, but it’s probably not the best starts that we can get with this car. Hopefully we will keep improving it through the year and into next year.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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