In recent weeks, the financial aspects of Formula 1 have made headlines focus mainly on the infringements by Red Bull and Aston Martin. A clearly delicate moment for the top category of motorsport, which risks imploding precisely in the phase of the sport’s maximum globalization. Max Verstappen’s conquest of the 2022 Formula 1 world title after the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit risks debasing the sporting importance of the last four rounds of the season, diverting media interest towards the next decisions which will be made by the FIA.
Although the sporting verdicts of the 2022 F1 season are essentially known, the upcoming races represent a great opportunity for Red Bull’s rivals. While almost all of the teams have completed the current development process, the data that will be collected in the next races will be very important for the 2023 projects, which currently are in an advanced development phase.
With the changes ratified by the federation on August 16, the technical regulations have been updated regarding a crucial area of the car: the floor. The FIA has changed the floor flexibility, which will have to be more rigid, as the edge of the sides will be raised by 15 millimeters and a portion of the diffuser will have to be raised by 10 millimeters.
Small values, but very important given the fact that they are able to completely change the behavior of the car. A problem well known to the Scuderia Ferrari engineers, who during the second part of the championship carried out several comparative tests with the floor used up to the Austrian Grand Prix and the one introduced at Paul Ricard. Not to mention the latest specification used in Japan.
For the Maranello team, the last four rounds of the 2022 Formula 1 season represent a great chance to fight for at least one race win, interrupting the streak of seven consecutive victories achieved by the bitter rivals of Red Bull. The last F1-75 triumph, in fact, dates back to the now distant Austrian Grand Prix, held on 10 July.
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If from a sporting point of view short-term goal is to score at least one victory in 2022, even if it is irrelevant for the outcome of the world rankings, the main target of the technical area is the collection of as much data as possible in view of the next championship. A sort of “pre-season” testing session consisting of sixteen overall sessions of crucial importance. The data analysis will be aimed at studying the two main weaknesses identified for the F1-75 car after the summer break:
• Efficiency of the car floor
• Degradation management for the whole range of compounds
It is necessary to specify that on the power unit front it will not be possible to introduce any update due to to the engine development freeze, both for the internal combustion unit and for the electric side, which started from 1 September. The Maranello team, however, could take advantage of the derogation procedure granted by the FIA to fix the reliability problems of the PU 066/7.
It is therefore likely that many free practice sessions will be partially sacrificed for work similar to that seen during the of winter tests. Furthermore, the last rounds of the current world championship will take place on circuits with completely different geometries. This factor will allow Ferrari to evaluate the balance of the car and the deterioration of the tires on a wide set of corners and in different environmental conditions.
While Ferrari’s work will be focused on understanding the F1-75 in a future key, rivals from Red Bull and Mercedes will face the last “stint” of the season in a diametrically opposite way. The Milton Keynes team would have approved a lighter chassis that never made its debut, due to the wide margin in the world rankings and not to expose itself further in the context of the “Budget Cap Gate”.
Mercedes will unveil its latest aerodynamic upgrade at the United States Grand Prix next weekend. Head of track engineers, Andrew Shovlin, has a lot of hope in the latest package of updates: “It will be our last step in aerodynamic development which, we hope, will give us a little more performance. The important thing is that from each step we always learn something that we will take with us for next year. In addition, we will remove some weight to make the W13 come closer to the permitted weight limit ”.
The last act of the season will take place in just over thirty days in the evocative setting of the Yas Marina circuit. Just over a month during which the Maranello e men will have to maximize their work on the track, to try to rediscover the technical certainties that have characterized the brilliant start to the season.
For this simple reason, it is more than likely that in the short term the technical area of Ferrari would prefer to find the key to the problem rather than celebrate a race win without having definitively understood the reasons for the decline in performance seen from Spa-Francorchamps onwards.
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