With the introduction of one of the most important regulation revolutions of the modern era of Formula 1, with cars now adopting ground-effect aerodynamics, the values on the field have been changed in the first part of the 2022 Formula 1 season, as Scuderia Ferrari became Red Bull’s main rival for the world championships.
The Ferrari F1-75 cars have secured eight pole positions against four for RB18 ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, but the Anglo-Austrian team, however, was able to score nine victories. Above all, the reliability of the power unit and the strategic errors of the Italian team are at the basis of the huge deficit that Charles Leclerc and Scuderia Ferrari have against Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the two world championships at this early stage of the 2022 F1 campaign.
In Hungary, Ferrari poorly calculated the setup parameters for cooler temperatures and a green track. And it is not the first time
Ferrari will have to leave Belgium with a great certainty: the excellent performance of the F1-75. Except for Imola and Budapest, which are paired with Red Bull’s dull performances in Australia and Austria, the Maranello team has managed to keep pace with the RB18 designed by Adrian Newey and his technical staff.
The analyzes carried out in the week following the Hungarian GP, before the mandatory closure of the Maranello factory in August, confirmed that the F1-75 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz underperformed at the the Hungaroring circuit, as confirmed by F1 technical analyst Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno. The setup was wrong, in what can be considered “a huge error” regarding the setup parameters that had to be calculated taking into account the significant drop in temperature between Friday (track over 50 ° C) and Sunday (track at 30 ° C), in addition to the greener track. In Hungary, those calculations were made incorrectly. It is not the first time, it also happened last year, at Paul Ricard for example. The result was a set-up that was not optimized for what the F1-75 could really give in terms of performance at the Hungaroring.
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However, if the strategists had better read the race and the impossibility of using the hardest compound during the Hungarian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc would certainly have finished to the podium, maybe even being able to challenge Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for the victory. However, the Italian car performed much less than it could have done in optimal conditions, namely aiming for a one-two finish which was the declared goal at the start of the Hungarian weekend.
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