Melbourne, one year later: numbers behind Ferrari collapse

The highest point of the 2022 F1 season
Exactly one year ago, at the end of the Australian Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari reached the highest point of the Mattia Binotto management. The success of Charles Leclerc, the second in three races, alongside a second place finish scored in Saudi Arabia, had launched the Monegasque on the run in the world championship standings. The Prancing Horse’s driver had, at that moment, a 46-point margin over Max Verstappen, who had experienced his second retirement of the season at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

True, Scuderia Ferrari had to record Carlos Sainz’s retirement on that occasion, but that episode seems to be just a small momentary setback in an unstoppable ride towards success. No one, in those hours, could instead have imagined that this would have been the beginning of a slow but constant descent towards the abyss.

Vertical collapse
12 months later, the situation of the Maranello team is completely reversed. The first race of the season without any points took place in Australia, a result that – excluding the reliability problems that led to the retirements of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Baku 2022 – Ferrari had not experienced since the 2021 French GP. In three GPs, no driver with the red suit was able to finish on the podium and Charles Leclerc, who should have been the designated rival in the title challenge against Max Verstappen, was the victim of his second retirement in the championship. Once again, however, it is the numbers that certify the Scuderia’s black moment better than any words.

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The numbers of the defeat
In the Melbourne 2022 race alone, Charles Leclerc had brought home 26 points, the result of the victory and the fastest lap in the race. The maximum possible total, which had sent the #16 to 71 points in the standings. The entire pair of Mercedes drivers had 65, the two Red Bull drivers – combined – just 55. This year, however, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were able to collect together just 26 points in three appointments. An unbelievable collapse, certainly also linked to unfortunate episodes, which however does not save Ferrari from what is – statistics in hand – the worst start to the season since the 25 points per victory system has been applied.

Fewer points than Mercedes in the last 22 GPs
There is no doubt that the Maranello team has the means to at least try to reverse this negative trend, starting to get closer to podium finishes and recovering points in the next races. However, the vertical drop in terms of results for the Maranello team in the space of just one year is huge.

If we start to calculate from the Imola 2022 race – the one that followed last year’s Australian GP – Ferrari is in fact even third in terms of the number of points obtained, behind Mercedes: 476, against 827 for Red Bull. Numbers, only cold numbers some will say. But these are numbers that make you think.