40 very intense days are ahead of us. And not only because the summer heat wave has now hit Europe. Over the next seven weeks, we will enjoy five Grands Prix one after the other at a beating drum. France, Styria, Austria (in just three weeks), England and Hungary. With Budapest we will have arrived on the 1st of August, the moment when Formula 1 will take a short break and then once again launch at full speed in the second phase of the season. The aforementioned circuits, with the exception of the Hungarian one, should be more suited to the cars equipped with particularly powerful engines, and, at the same time, with high aerodynamic efficiency.
Characteristics that are not among the strengths of the Ferrari SF21, as we could notice from the first six races of the 2021 Formula 1 season, but the Maranello team should be very strong at the Hungaroring track, with its slow corners. Hungary should therefore be a good hunting ground for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, as we saw in Monaco.
But you have to be careful with the predictions. Baku, in the presentation phase, was not supposed to be a friendly circuit for Ferrari. Yet, in qualifying, also thanks to the red flag, Charles Leclerc delivered a great performance that allowed him to grab the second pole position of the season. A surprising result because we always have to keep in mind where Ferrari came from. 2020, we wrote it every time, was Maranello’s annus horribilis. The car suffered with a limited power unit after the well-known events that led Maranello and the FIA to produce a confidential agreement which, de facto, weakened the Italian six-cylinder. But even on the chassis and aerodynamic front, the car was very bad. A mix of elements, combined with Sebastian Vettel’s uncomfortable position, which made Ferrari’s 2020 a real ordeal.
A difficult moment from which Ferrari has started again and, according to the results of the first six GPs, it seems that the Italian side came out quite brilliantly. The Maranello team is in full battle for third place in the Constructors’ classification, a declared seasonal goal. The recovery on McLaren, which at first seemed to be further ahead, is evident. The teams are working on the new generation cars and this is causing a substantial shift in mental and economic forces in the year to come. So the values seen so far could be frozen for the whole championship. A circumstance that would put Ferrari in a position to fight all the way for the third step of the podium.
The next part of Ferrari’s championship could therefore be a sort of performance swing based on the type of circuit that will be tackled. Laurent Mekies, sporting director of the Formula 1 program, is well aware of this and spoke about the moment of the team he represents in an interview for the transalpine magazine AutoHebdo: “Despite Charles’s great pole position in Baku, we knew that Red Bull and Mercedes, especially with Hamilton, they would soon overtake us. Is there any frustration? Yes, and it derives from a double component: having lost the position with respect to Gasly in the first pit stop and having given way to Vettel at the restart after the Safety Car. Our race pace was not bad, which is why we are disappointed. Too bad we lost precious points in a world championship.”- he explained.
The Azerbaijan GP was a key test for Maranello, which eventually finished as a disappointing moment because, especially in the race, the SF21 lacked some elements that could put it on a par with the cars in front of the ranking. Now it will be necessary to optimize the aerodynamic, chassis and engine package available to maximize performance based on the configuration of the track.
A potential that can grow to a limited extent based on small changes that will be brought into the next races and that have already been approved. Certainly not impressive news in a context of substantial freezing due to the development of the 2022 model on which Ferrari – and not only – is betting all the chips. Mekies is well aware of this and explains it clearly: “In large part we will have to manage these current characteristics of our car. In a very small development scenario, we are aware of having to play on this equation for the whole year. There will be tracks on which we will go to attack and others where we will play in defensive. But that certainly does not mean that we will give up. We are trying to optimize what we have available, to understand why the car seems to be more comfortable in the slow corners than in the faster ones. Our goal is to study to obtain a better balance of characteristics on different circuits.” – he added.
An interpretative work in a season in which Ferrari seems to have exceeded an atavistic limit: the correlation of the data emerging from the simulator and those deriving from the track. The SF21 finds its set-up quite quickly and neither the technicians nor the drivers get lost during the weekends in search of the correct set-up. Of course, in a general growth path, it is also necessary to have a more efficient power unit. Carlos Sainz has repeatedly stated that Maranello’s turbo-hybrid V6 struggles when power is needed and suffers on start & stop tracks. How can the Red Bull Ring be. This is why even on the engine front something is expected during the year to anticipate the regulatory freeze on the subject of 2022: “On the engine side – explained a discreet Mekies – there are things that I hope will happen at the end of the year”.
More than hopes, it is a question of certainties. Which in the Modena factory they try to keep hidden. 2022 is born today and everything that will be done in this championship, especially on the power units, is nothing more than a preview for next year in which the aerodynamics will be very important considering that engine development will be frozen (they will remain conceptually unchanged until 2025). This preparation is therefore more important than it appears because any advantages – or unwanted disadvantages – will persist for a long time. The engineers are well aware of this and work day and night to catch up with Honda and Mercedes.
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