It is no secret that poor reliability has negatively affected Scuderia Ferrari’s 2022 campaigg, but according to recent statements by new team boss Frédéric Vasseur, the situation seems to have been resolved at least on the test bench. “We have worked on the dynamic test benches and we are optimistic but only in Bahrain will we understand where we are in terms of reliability and performance, so for now everything is fine.” – the French manager said in a recent interview for the media.
In the last two years none of the top teams has managed to finish the season without using the fourth power unit for various reasons, nevertheless the goal that Ferrari has set itself would seem to be the following: “The plan is to finish the season with three engines, if you look at the past seasons not many have succeeded, but this is our plan and we will have to try to stick to it.” – Fred Vasseur continued.
For several years, Ferrari have been suffering when it comes to finding the missing tenths through updates during the ongoing season. Last year in France it seemed that the new floor was a step forward, but it turned out to be one of the elements that contributed to the performance drop towards the end of the season: “We will certainly have to work on the development of the car and we will have to keep pushing because I think the differences between the cars will be smaller than other years, and it means that every update will make a big difference.”
Fred Vasseur: “Finding the balance right away and not having problems during the tests will be the keys to a good start”
Less than a week will pass between the end of the three days of winter testing and the Friday of the first Grand Prix of the season, which means that any unforeseen event could cost any team dearly:
“If you have problems during testing, it will be difficult to react in such a short time.” The Ferrari team principal recalled the case of McLaren, who only realized they had a serious problem with the MCL36 during the tests in Bahrain and had to make several changes in the short term which caused them many problems in the first part of the season. “Now the situation is different than last year because we know broadly the problems we could encounter. We will have to work on the balance of the car, but the basic concept is better known than it was 12 months ago.” – he pointed out.
Finally, Enrico Cardile’s words regarding the philosophy of the SF-23 were echoed by the French manager: “The concept of the car is the same, the regulations are the same and we don’t have a lot of room to work with these rules. Concepts will converge, performance will converge, and part carry-over for cost cap needs to be considered.” – he added.
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On the budget cap matter, Frederic Vasseur was quick to avoid any controversial comments, aware that at this moment re-establishing relations with the Federation is more important than sending unnecessary jabs: “It’s about being quicker to manage the regulations and this is fundamental, but when we look at what happened last year we have to take into account that it was the first year of the cost cap. In the end they did a good job because the investigations are huge and ten teams are involved, but if it is done faster it will be better for the fans too. I think everyone is convinced of this including the FIA, they know the situation perfectly and know that they will have to be faster.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.
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