The break in the calendar as a result of the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix was good for Scuderia Ferrari. The Maranello team had time to analyze the data collected in Monza with a certain degree of calm, extracting useful information for the development of the F1-75 in the last part of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
The Italian side was beaten on its home ground by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, but the Maranello team was able to fight on track and not disappoint the crowd of Tifosi who stormed Monza for a historic attendance record.
Charles Leclerc’s pole position and the Monegasque’s second place fueled the hope that the F1-75 could return to challenging Red Bull for wins before the end of the 2022 Formula 1 season, taking at least one more victory that would interrupt the Dutchman’s winning streak.
The analysis of the telemetry gave some unexpected indications: Carlos Sainz, in the comparative tests carried out at the Monza circuit in the first free practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, did not find great differences in performance between the most recent floor (introduced in France) and the previous one. Given that the data was gathered from a track like Monza, which favors aerodynamic efficiency over aerodynamic downforce, the Maranello technicians were convinced there was no issue with the new floor, leaving the old one at home.
The choice was right for the Italian track, but it may not necessarily be the same in Singapore, where it will be essential to configure an F1-75 car with maximum downforce, dusting off the wings seen at the Monaco GP. In fact, Marina Bay is a city track where it is essential to exploit one of the characteristics of the Ferrari car, namely traction.
As confirmed by Motorsport Italy, Ferrari will bring a substantial upgrade package for the Singapore Grand Prix: the main change will concern the floor which has been revised in some aspects.
We expect some upgrades for entrance of the Venturi channels: having gone in the direction of the concepts introduced by the Red Bull RB18 to reduce drag in search of maximum speeds, has clearly penalized Ferrari which, on the other hand, has significantly suffered a drop in performance especially the which had made it very competitive in the first part of the championship.
To extract the maximum potential, these ground-effect single-seaters must be able to rely on a large operating window for the tires. The F1-75 started the season by being the car that was kindest to tires, losing this characteristic in particular from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards.
In a flying lap, Ferrari proved to be very fast (ten pole positions: 8 for Charles Leclerc and 2 for Carlos Sainz), but in the race the tyre degradation with various compounds became more higher than Red Bull and even Mercedes on certain tracks.
The introduction of the Technical Directive 39 by the FIA has certainly contributed to changing the balance, but the engineers from Maranello have not given up trying to fin answers on the unexpected Hungarian flop, where Ferrari had gone with the hope of taking a one-two finish, only to lose out even on a podium finish and realise that there were no realistic chances of fighting for the world title this year.
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In the Hungarian Grand Prix, the AOM logarithm, the Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric, which imposed a maximum oscillation value starting with the Spa-Francorchamps event, was active, but only to allow the teams to take measurements because it was not mandatory at that stage.
A new sponsor is coming
Motorsport Italy also informs that the recent filming day, which was completed by Carlos Sainz at Fiorano this week, was needed because of the arrival of a new partner that will be announced shortly. The occasion, however, was also used to collect some data and check the correlation between the wind tunnel and the simulation systems with the maximum aerodynamic load package designed for Singapore.
Ferrari therefore returns to the track with the ambition of aiming for the race win and therefore continuing the positive results at the Marina Bay street circuit. In 2019, the last time the Singapore Grand Prix was held, Scuderia Ferrari celebrated a one-two finish with Sebastian Vettel ahead of Charles Leclerc.
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