Scuderia Ferrari are a rejuvenated Formula 1 team after following up a desperately poor 2020 season, when the Italian side dropped from challenging for the title to their worst championship in the last 40 years, with a much more competitive 2021 Formula One campaign.
Ferrari achieved this despite confirming from the start of the season that the team is openly focusing mainly on next year’s rules revolution rather than this season’s car.
“We’ve only had two or three upgrades but they have made us do a big step forward and this is looking good for the future,” Charles Leclerc said after a strong performance in the United States Grand Prix last Sunday – “[Bouncing back] was the goal but until we do it it’s very difficult to know if you’re doing things right. 2021 was all about trying to build the best car for 2022 but the few upgrades we brought were significant.” – he added.
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However, not all things went smoothly for Scuderia Ferrari at Circuit of the Americas in Austin: Carlos Sainz and the Maranello team were frustrated after missing out on a fifth place finish for the Spanish driver, who ended up seventh after some close battles with Ricciardo and most importantly a very slow pit-stop that prevented him from undercutting the McLaren driver. “We didn’t maximise,” said the Spaniard, while team boss Mattia Binotto added: “One slip up in what was overall a good weekend has cost us valuable points.”
Yet there are still plenty of positives from the Austin race:
“We leave Austin having demonstrated, both in qualifying and in the race, that we have made progress even on a track that, on paper, is not particularly suited to our car. In this part of the season, the performance of the SF21 has improved, partly thanks to the introduction of the new hybrid system. I believe we can fight for third place all the way to the end and that we have everything in place to achieve that.” – Ferrari Team Principal concluded.
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