Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, in examining the 2022 season, admitted that Ferrari stopped the development of the F1-75 before its rivals being aware that second place in the Constructors’ championship would the best result the Italian side could achieve this year. Therefore, the attention of the technical staff was concentrated exclusively on the 2023 car.
A risky choice that required a good dose of courage, given that even the confirmation of a vice-champion status for Charles Leclerc only came the last round of the season, at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after the one-two finish scored by Mercedes seven days earlier in Brazil which made things difficult for the Italian side at the Yas Marina circuit.
Since September, the Scuderia has put its heart and soul into project 675, the design code for next year’s Formula 1 car, because it became clear that Red Bull RB18 with Max Verstappen could not be stopped this season.
“I think there were some factors” – explained Mattia Binotto – “The first was that in terms of development, Red Bull had a clear path, which was to reduce the weight of the car. This was not our case. And in some way they knew where to intervene to extract performance from the single-seater” – he added.
“For us it was more complicated because the development went through aerodynamic elements and the concept of the car. Looking back, the development we did was certainly not enough. We stopped very early, not only by choice but also for budget reasons.” – the Ferrari boss pointed out.
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At the start of the 2022 Formula One season, Scuderia Ferrari brought a more “mature” single-seater to the track than its competition, which was the result of the previous two years of development and, perhaps, concentrated developments more in the first part of the season to support the fact that the F1-75 it was considered the best single-seater on the grid, before Red Bull significantly improved and was able to capitalize on its speed to take 15 victories with Max Verstappen.
What Mattia Binotto did not say, but which is certainly interesting in perspective for 2023, is that this year’s development budget did not end with the F1-75, but the remaining portion was transferred to next year’s car, according to a recent report from Franco Nugnes for Motorsport Italy.
In Maranello they had taken a risk, confident that second place in the Constructors standings and Charles Leclerc’s title of vice-world champion would be achieved anyway, preferring to add economic resources to the 2023 project.
The internal numbers speak of a significantly better car than the F1-75 in the wind tunnel. This data gives a certain optimism about the next car and that may in some way have changed the intentions of the Ferrari president, John Elkann, to replace Mattia Binotto at the top of the Racing Department. If more resources have been invested than those envisaged in the two years, it is possible that the development process could also be more spread out over the course of the season.
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