The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will mark the first race of the European season and for some teams it will be the first opportunity to introduce important upgrades as they attempt to improve their 2022 Formula 1 cars. This will also be the case for Red Bull. It was first announced by Helmut Marko, later confirmed by several other sources: after the important package already brought to Bahrain, Red Bull should introduce improvements on its RB18 at Imola. Updates which will not only have aerodynamic purposes but also to be able to reduce the weight, by a value of less than 1%, useful to get closer to its direct competitor, the F1-75. On the other had, Ferrari is confident it does not require an urgent slimming treatment.
A certainly significant upgrade for the Anglo-Austrian team which – especially on a stop & go track like Imola, could give Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez an interesting increase in performance. Firstly on the possibility of better balancing the front in higher load circuits, one of the major current problems of the RB18 project, since the Emilia-Romagna circuit requires a very precise front coupled to a stable rear that rotates tight without losing too many meters. Everything the Ferrari F1-75 would appear to have. Also in Imola, the Italian team will continue to remain rather cautious regarding the introduction of important aerodynamic updates, also because there will be only one hour of free time for their evaluation, given the first weekend with the Sprint Race.
As reported by Italian journalists Giuliano Duchessa and Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno, Ferrari will continue wits its own development plan. Here are some of the key points reported by formu1a.uno:
Ferrari is still going through the reliability data [so far the data is positive]. Only if the data in Imola is also good, Ferrari will introduce the second power unit between the Miami Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix at the |Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The power increase with the second power unit should be around 10hp.
The current engine (power unit 1, which is still in good shape, will continue to be used by Ferrari during the Friday practice sessions.
At the same time, the Maranello team is working on a new floor specification to eliminate the bouncing issues, but also on a new advanced rear suspension to completely eliminate this problem. For now it is not clear when the Italian side will decide to bring this upgrade, most likely it will happen in the second half of the 2022 Formula 1 season. The new diffuser which we have seen in Australia during the first free practice session, will continue to be tested in Friday sessions. Development is advanced but not yet finished.
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Scuderia Ferrari are also focusing on a new rear wing to improve efficiency, an aspect that they work very hard on. At the same time, the Maranello team already aims to save some hours in the wind tunnel, hours which can already be dedicated to the 2023 Formula 1 car.
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