[Press review] – From an exclusively ‘utilitarian’ point of view, Scuderia Ferrari can return home from Losail with a big smile. Lando Norris ‘puncture in the final laps of the Qatar Grand Prix and the fuel saving problem that Daniel Ricciardo experienced in the race allowed the Maranello team to further extend its lead in the constructors’ classification, with a gap of 39.5 points over McLaren, with only two races to go until the end of the season. Third place in the 2021 Formula 1 Constructor Standings is the goal from the beginning of the season and is in fact safe at this stage. But then, evaluating the Qatar GP without looking at the standings, Ferrari still remains only with a seventh and eighth place, behind the two Alpine cars and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin. And with the former Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel overtaken only as a result of his mistake at the start.
In short, Ferrari had to approach the race in defense, as confirmed by Mattia Binotto and the drivers themselves, who appeared disappointed at the end of the race by the fact that they had never really been able to push the accelerator pedal, under the threat of destroying the tires. This is the real problem of the SF21: the management of tire wear. It has been since the beginning of the year and the team principal is certainly right in noting that there have been improvements from this point of view. But to be able to compete at the top next season, Ferrari needs a further step in this sense. In an article for Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, Paolo Filisetti tried to explain the reasons for this issue:
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“[…] Until a few years ago, in fact, the Maranello cars were defined as “kind” with the tires. In Qatar, however, the wear was particularly evident […]. Ferrari suffered most of all from the lack of mechanical grip guaranteed by the tires, due to two very specific and linked factors. […] The SF21 derives from the SF1000 […]. […]. The load generated by the floor, although increased, is not stable in all conditions […]. The reduced mechanical grip is the second determining cause of the large lateral slips which in Qatar were amplified by the veil of sand on the asphalt. Furthermore, the SF21 is not always able to quickly warm up the tires because this depends on how much energy the car is able to induce on the tires. […] “. – La Gazzetta dello Sport reports.
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