The day after Ferrari’s disappointing outcome in the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, as a result of lack of pace and poor strategy decisions from the Maranello team’s pit wall, the Italian media was of course outraged for another opportunity wasted by Ferrari in this 2022 Formula 1 season, as pointed out by Fulvio Solms for Corriere dello Sport:
“The wave of enthusiasm on which the entire Ferrari team was surfing, dreaming of an irresistible end of the season, has been completely shattered. It should never have happened at the Hungaroring, but it did. Right there, on the reassuring circuit that calls for a key quality of Ferrari – aerodynamic load – and does not impose worries related to reliability, which has been lacking for Ferrari this year. And therefore, as they go on vacation, the Ferrari drivers will take with them a long and bitter book of errors to read”.
Ferrari disaster, what remains is only the embarrassment for the choices made
“For Ferrari, Hungary was such a Caporetto (Battle of Caporetto, where the Italian retreat was documented by Ernest Hemingway in his novel A Farewell to Arms) that we don’t even know where to start. Perhaps from the drivers title that Charles Leclerc was chasing, albeit at a distance, as he imagined a second part of the season with ten out of ten wins? Well, actually bad: Verstappen won with special effects starting tenth (his first success in Hungary) and went up from +63 to +80 on Charles, as the Dutchman secured his second title with nine races to go. Or should we start with Ferrari, which has returned to being the third force behind Red Bull and Mercedes? The German star, has had problems with its W13 since the beginning of the season but is now only thirty points behind the Maranello team in the constructors standings, and could overtake them in the next Grand Prix.
Or do we want to start with the wrong choice of fitting hard tires for Charles Leclerc? Putting hard (lap 39) was a sentence after burning two sets of mediums (changed already on lap 22). There was only one other soft set available, but it would never have lasted to the finish line. Charles in the car was unwilling or unable to believe it: «Hards are terrible! Is it the same for others?” Laconic, engineer Xavi Marcos admitted: “Yes, that’s it.” Charles: “Why did we do it?” Answer: “We’ll talk about it later.” On the hard it was like running 100 meters on heels: Verstappen (twice) and Russell took advantage of Charles not being able to defend. Obviously, a third stop was then needed, as soon as possible (lap 54), to be carried even lower by changing to the softs.
The overtaking festival
Probably the error that created the embarrassment via radio was born upstream, already in the first pit stop, much anticipated by Ferrari, which could have stayed on the track with the mediums and instead practically copied the choice of George Russell and Max Verstappen, who stopped early because they started the race on the soft tyre. The result? Charles Leclerc does not understand the choices made with the tires, Carlos Sainz does not understand the poor pace of the car, nobody understands the flop of Ferrari and in the meantime the pieces of the power unit granted for the whole season without taking penalties are already used, so from the next race Charles and Carlos will most likely have to take other penalties, and dearly, this will happen at every technical chance or every scheduled substitution. On the track where overtaking is very difficult, Ferrari somehow managed to lose five places (Charles Leclerc from third to sixth, Carlos Sainz from second to fourth), while Mercedes gained three (Hamilton from seventh to second and Russell from pole to third) and Red Bull even fifteen (Verstappen from tenth to first with a 360-degree spin, and Sergio Perez from eleventh to fifth after an unspeakable race, as a rug, ready to wait for his teammate or to throw himself off the track to let him pass, even at the cost of losing positions towards rival cars).
Title hopes for Ferrari are shattered
Charles Leclerc overtaking George Russell by diving into the first corner in front of his wheels (lap 31) after a thrilling battle and braking was an optical effect, nothing more. The ground therefore collapsed under Ferrari’s feet, convinced that it had the best car in the World Championship. But it is time to close the dream book and return to the original objectives: to be competitive in each race. After the summer break, on August 28 in Belgium it will be difficult, because the two F1-75 cars will take penalties and start from the back of the grid. We therefore look to races that will arrive later, or perhaps even next year.
