“Five wins”. At the beginning of the 2022 Formula One season, Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc had set this goal for his current championship, with the hope that starting from a base of five wins he could have a chance to fight for the Formula 1 world championship up until the final round of the season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit.
With a calendar of 22 events, getting on the top step of the podium just under one Sunday out of four and still being able to fight for the title would have meant for a lot of balance on the track and wins divided between several other drivers. Even more so given the fact that ahead of the season more than four drivers were expected to fight for race wins this year. Eventually, only Red Bull and Scuderia Ferrari had a car capable of challenging for race victories, with the F1-75 falling behind in terms of race pace in the second half of the 2022 F1 campaign.
Max Verstappen therefore won 13 races, more than double the number of wins combined by Charles Leclerc (3), Sergio Perez (2) and Carlos Sainz (1). It is therefore no surprise that the Dutchman has been crowned world champion with four races until the end of the season and that Red Bull celebrated the Constructors’ title last Sunday in Austin when there are still more than 100 points up for grabs regarding the ranking for teams.
The championship had started with excellent prospects for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, who won the first and third round of the championship (Bahrain and Australia), but the reliability problems have irremediably compromised the Maranello team’s hopes of fighting against Red Bull for the most ambitious targets.
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The return to the track after the summer break saw Ferrari lose its shine unlike Red Bull, which was able to improve a created a bigger gap between the RB18 and the F1-75 in terms of handling and consequent tire degradation, an aspect that has been under the magnifying glass for several weeks in Maranello, as Ferrari hopes to find solutions in view of finalizing the project for the 2023 season.
In this regard, the new floor brought to the track at Suzuka is giving positive feedback even if at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, Charles Leclerc was not able to defend against a charging Max Verstappen in the final part of the 2022 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Yet the F1-75 does not seem to lack aerodynamic balance: “The performance of the Ferrari F1-75 car seems to have worsened due to suspension set-up which was harder than the set-up used by the Maranello up to mid-season” – writes Formula1 technical journalist Paolo Filisetti in today’s edition of the Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport:
“Basically, this has occurred ever since the FIA introduced the Technical Directive 39 to limit the aerodynamic phenomenon of bouncing at high speed, by imposing stricter controls on the flexibility of the floor and on the wear of the skid under the car. This could have indirectly affected Ferrari’s performance, worsening tire management.” – La Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out.
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