After a disappointing 2021 Formula 1 season in terms of results, Scuderia Ferrari seemed to have recovered at the start of the 2022 world championship, which was marked by two immediate victories of Charles Leclerc in Sakhir and in Australia. At the same time, Red Bull had instead suffered two retirements due to reliability problems, giving the impression that the Maranello team was in fact a serious candidate for winning the world title. Then, as the season gradually progressed, thinks shifted in favor of the Austrian side.
As Max Verstappen was taking the lead of the standings, the Italian side had to deal with numerous reliability problems, which had already emerged in Spain on the F1-75 car of Charles Leclerc, who was forced to retire due to a turbo failure. The Monegasque then also had to park his F1-75 challenger at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, this time due to engine trouble, exactly as happened to Carlos Sainz in Austria, with the Spaniard who also had to quickly abandon the single-seater due to the flames that had destroyed the engine cover of his single seater.
All these reliability issues, together with a few mistakes from the drivers, the degradation of the front tires and the questionable strategies of the Maranello team, made it easy for Red Bull to secure the Constructors’ championship and fox Max Verstappen to win the Drivers’ title without any major difficulty.
However, there was also another aspect that led to Ferrari’s loss of pace in the second half of the championship, which team principal Mattia Binotto admitted only during the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, the last event of the 2022 Formula One season.
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In the most complex period in terms of reliability, and therefore dating back to the first half of the world championship, the Ferrari boss in fact confirmed the team was forced to limit the engine power, which was slightly reduced with the goal of reducing the risks of further retirements due to technical problems: “This is our absolute priority, because to win you need to be reliable, and this was not the case this season, as the 2022 overall balance shows” – said Mattia Binotto – “The second objective is that of car speed, because while we were very competitive in qualifying, it wasn’t always like this in the race. Our race pace, both from tire degradation and pure pace, was not enough for a better position. If you develop a fast and reliable car – he added – it is true that you can make mistakes with strategy or pit stops, but you can always compensate with the fact that the car itself is fast and reliable. So, that’s where we need to focus our efforts.” – Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto concluded.
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