Mika Hakkinen impressed by Ferrari’s straight-line speed, tyre performance and strategy in Austria. Mika Hakkinen on Ferrari's race in Austria.

Finnish former racing driver Mika Hakkinen, who won the F1 world championship in 1998 and 1999, said that Scuderia Ferrari have to continue performing the way they did last weekend in Austria to be able to keep their title hopes alive this season.

Once a formidable opponent of the Maranello team, Mika Hakkinen feels the way the Italian side outperformed Red Bull at the championship leaders’ home track will represent a confidence booster in the fight for the title in the second part of the 2022 Formula 1 season. Scuderia Ferrari had a solid weekend in Austria, which was only hampered by the power unit failure of Carlos Sainz, as rivals Red Bull had no answer in terms of pace and strategy around their home track. Max Verstappen was left powerless to defend against Charles Leclerc as the Monegasque driver overtook him three times to take a commanding position from the first part of the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix.

“Ferrari beat Red Bull in a straight fight this weekend and that will give them a lot of confidence at this mid-point of the season,” Mika Hakkinen wrote in his column for Unibet after the race in Spielberg – “Ferrari have worked hard to find the straight-line speed they need to compete against Red Bull, but at the weekend we also saw they had better tyre performance on a circuit which normally suits Red Bull.” – he added.

Red Bull’s pace in Austria was affected by high tyre degradation, as Mika Hakkinen pointed out that the characteristics of the Spielberg track had seemed to favour the Ferrari F1-75 car especially in terms of race pace, after Max Verstappen took pole position on Friday and also won the Sprint race on Saturday:

“Tyre performance is so critical in Formula 1 and very much depends on the type of circuit, whether it places the emphasis on front or rear grip and the balance between them. The track in Austria tends to make rear tyre wear more critical than the front, and that favoured Ferrari. Although Max won the sprint on Saturday in order to claim pole position, Charles already could see his car had the performance to challenge for the win on Sunday. He even said so on the team radio! So although Max started the race strongly, Charles was able to stay fully in touch and overtake fairly easily as Max’s rear tyres struggled.” – the two-time former World Champion continued.

Scuderia Ferrari lost important points this season due to some poor strategy decisions, as the Maranello team have been caught out on at least two occasions by aggressive Red Bull strategies, most notably on the streets of Monte Carlo, where Charles Leclerc looked set for a great victory, but in the end finished outside the podium after making two pit stops in just three laps, as Ferrari lost a one-two finish and Red Bull went on to take advantage and win the Monaco Grand Prix. However, Mika Hakkinen feels Ferrari’s solid approach to Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix proved the confidence can be there.

“Ferrari’s race strategies have caused some problems this year, but not on Sunday. When they saw Max switch to a two-stop strategy they followed, but by making their pit-stops significantly later they always retained a strong tyre advantage. This is the kind of confident strategy Ferrari will need to maintain if they are to consistently challenge Red Bull.” – he said.

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Despite the fact that both title rivals Red Bull and Ferrari ended the Austrian Grand Prix with just one car, as Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz dropped out, the Mexican’s DNF was caused by damage, while Carlos Sainz had to retire due to an engine failure. Given the fact that reliability remains a question mark for the Maranello team, Mika Hakkinen admitted this is the key area the Scuderia need to work on:

“Carlos’ engine failure shows Ferrari still have work to do on reliability and I’m sure they must know where the problems lie. Charles cannot afford to have those kinds of failures if he is to close the gap to Max. In fact, he needs Max to have a non-finish if the points gap in the World Championship is to really close down.” – he concluded.