Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has provided some details about how the Italian side intends to approach the in-season development and the upgrades which will be brought to the track during the 2022 Formula 1 season, confirming that the approach will be rather different to the previous years, taking into consideration the limitations imposed by the budget cap for 2022 and the fact that Ferrari seems to be able to challenge for thw world titles this campaign.
Formula 1 is in its second year since the introduction of the budget cap rules, with the goal of reducing costs by limiting the spending of the teams. This means that for the 2022 Formula 1 championship, teams are only allowed $140 million for car development, updates and performance-related spend. The result is the need for more cautious budgeting has led many teams not to hurry with the introduction of updates in this first part of the season, given the fact that they have to be sure the updates actually work.
After the first four rounds of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign, Scuderia Ferrari are one of the teams who have held back on bringing any major changes to their F1-75 car, which means that the Italian side is basically running the same car which has first been seen in action at the Circuit de Catalunya back in February, when the first pre-season testing session took place.
The most important upgrade package for Ferrari is expected after the Miami Grand Prix, as Formula 1 will return to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix later in May, and team principal Mattia Binotto points out that there is no reason for panicking about rushing through new components so early in the championship: We are only at race four,” the Ferrari told the media, when asked about the Maranello team’s plans for future developments – “If I look at the past seasons as well, I don’t think that at race four there were many developments brought to cars. If I look at our competitors, [some] already brought some developments – some of them in testing, some of them [at Imola], and some, maybe small, developments from race one to race four, so I don’t think that, so far, it has changed much compared to the past.” – he continued.
Mattia Binotto also pointed out to the direct implications of the cost cap, explaining that the budget does not allow teams to bring many updates: “[The budget caps means] we certainly need to pay attention to it and we cannot simply drop the developments at each single race.” – he added.
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At the same time, despite the new rules and technical regulations for the 2022 Formula One season, Mattia Binotto thinks the upgrades could actually not play such a crucial role as many have suggested:
“I think there is the fact that the regulations, the way [they are], are somehow prescribed and we always said [they’re] quite prescriptive regulations. I think there is quite a lot of freedom in choosing the overall concept or architecture and that’s the reason why we can see quite different cars. But, by the time you have chosen it, how much you can change on the front wing, or the rear wing, the bodywork – it’s very little. I think that, as teams, because we’ve got a budget cap in place, we are simply trying to make sure that, by the time we are bringing a package, it’s a proper one. And maybe, to do that, we simply take a few more races.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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