Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has admitted that tyre degradation remains the main factor which has led to the F1-75’s current pace deficit as compared to the Red Bull RB18 especially in the race.
While Ferrari proved to be able to challenge Red Bull in the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen has completely dominated since the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite the fact that the Dutchman was forced to start from the midfield or even the back of the grid at some races: most recently, Verstappen started the Italian Grand Prix from the fourth row, but was still able to secure an easy race win, despite Charles Leclerc started from pole position at Monza, but had no response in terms of outright pace.
This means that while the F1-75 challenger still seems able to fight with Red Bull over one lap, which has allowed Charles Leclerc to take pole position at Monza, Ferrari is clearly behind Max Verstappen over a full race distance of late. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have both done their best to stop the 2021 Formula 1 world champion, but Verstappen and Red Bull have had something of an edge over the Maranello team.
Mattia Binotto was asked about what happened to Ferrari’s race pace and pointed to the tyres wear as a major part of the drop in performance. Tyre degradation has therefore seen the Maranello team’s pace drop off faster during stints, which has allowed Max Verstappen to win the last five races without any major problems.
As the 2022 Formula 1 season is over for Ferrari in terms of title hopes, the Italian side’s team principal confirmed this will be the priority area to try and fix ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 championship:
“I think we do not only look back at the previous two [races] but the last three because I would include as well Hungary. In the last races, I think that the performance of the Red Bull has been better than ours. Not in qualifying, because I see that in qualy we have still got a good pace – so let me say the pure performance is still there. But then with the race pace, we are suffering tyre degradation. In that respect, I think the Red Bull is a better car, so they’ve been capable of developing that car for a better balance that we didn’t. The reason? I think it is something that we are looking at, because we need to address it. If not for this season, certainly for the next one.” – Mattia Binotto explained.
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The Ferrari boss was asked to further comment on the matter, explaining that Red Bull are able to to use their tyres in a better operating window through different corner configurations and speeds, while the F1-75 car is facing difficulties getting the tyres to work in the right place setup wise.
“If we look back at the last races, where in terms of tyre degradation we have not been the best, we certainly had issues with the car balance. Having an open balance, medium-high speed to low-speed corners, generated overheating into the tyres themselves, which somehow then brings to the degradation. So, we know that the car balance was not the right one. The reason of the poor car balance was due to aero developments that brought us there. It was a question mark for us.” – Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto concluded.
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