How Ferrari F1-75's strength at Paul Ricard became a weakness at Hungaroring

The debriefing after the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix was a headache day in Maranello. The Hungaroring appointment was supposed to be a great opportunity for Scuderia Ferrari to take a one-two finish and reduce the gap to Red Bull in both standings, but only according to what was seen on Friday. From the data acquired in free practice, the F1-75 had 3 tenths of an advantage over Max Verstappen, not to mention the gap over the other closest pursuers, Mercedes in the first place, which then literally transformed on Saturday. As a result, George Russell was able to take a surprising pole position in qualifying. The weather change, with ambient temperatures that dropped by 10 degrees and the rain that continually washed the track, eliminated the advantage shown and also reduced expectations.

The F1-75 suffers from cold temperatures and especially the green conditions of the track
With track temperatures 25 degrees lower, Max Verstappen and the Mercedes cars became extremely dangerous and thinking of an easy double win in fact became a lot more complicated. This the Ferrari technicians knew well. The F1-75 car expresses its potential more easily at higher temperatures. With a colder and above all non-rubber track, the F1-75 struggles harder than Red Bull. Certainly, it should not be taken as a dogma but it is no coincidence that the only two poor performances of the excellent Italian car this year took place in Imola and Hungary, with rather similar environmental and track conditions. Or that Red Bull is able to make an important difference in the intermediates compared to the F1-75. The RB18 manages to put temperature in the tires much faster than the F1-75, especially in certain conditions such as in the case of a cold and green track or when using intermediates.

Of course, the layout of the Hungaroring track also helped. The Hungarian circuit does not generate a high amount of energy on the tires, being a track with medium-low speeds and no major braking, much less leaning corners that help heat the surface in the first case, the structure of the tire in the other. It should also be noted that the asphalt of the Hungarian circuit is very old and smooth. In this 2022 edition, the Hungaroring has gone from being a more rear limited track, especially in the case of very high asphalt temperatures such as those on Friday, to completely front limited, as explained by F1 experts Giuliano Duchessa and Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno. If the temperatures had helped Ferrari at Paul Ricard to find a better compromise that made the front axle work better, in Hungary the weather took away the advantage that the Red team should have had, and which on Friday Ferrari was indeed able to show as compared to their rivals.

It was therefore no surprise to see both Ferrari cars on the yellow (medium) tyre at the start, the best racing compound according to Pirelli. The engineers had a long discussion about a different start and thought about putting one of the two drivers on the soft. This option was then set aside as they were in fact very afraid that mounting the Softs would generate a heavy graining on the front of the F1-75 during the first laps of the race, as happened on Lando Norris’ MCL36. Nor is it a case that the main plans only included the use of Medium and Hard tyres for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.