There is another duel to be won, this time not on track, but in the various factories of the Formula 1 teams: the fight for developments, which has become even more important in the first year of such a radical regulation change. With cars that the teams believe are still prototypes, engineers continue to gather data and understand the cars Grand Prix after Grand Prix, lap after lap. From this point of view, Ferrari against Red Bull meant comparing the most efficient team in terms of developments, such as the Anglo-Austrian team, and one of the worst in the turbo hybrid era of this modern Formula 1.
Ferrari is winning the battle of developments
Starting from the initial project, when Mattia Binotto spoke of an “innovative single-seater”, of a team that “had approached the new regulation with an open mind”, many were skeptical: “When we unveiled the new car, we saw that our project was very different from the others and there were some who asked themselves a few questions.” said Mattia Binotto in the classic press conference after the French Grand Prix. Once the pre-season testing sessions arrived, the F1-75 immediately went strong on track, certainly more than the Red Bull RB18 which slowly, with the various development packages, however, recovered the gap in terms of performance, in some cases even exceeded as in the negative weekend of Imola for Ferrari. And then the old ghosts are back, of a team that would have lost the world championship on developments, because “you will see that in Ferrari they will not be able to develop the car while in Red Bull …” an insider told formu1a.uno, according to Paolo D’Alessandro and Giuliano Duchessa.
The first positive signs regarding a team that is more focused also with regard to the evolution of the car had already been seen last season. This year we are having further confirmations. “I’m happy because we knew that the basic project was good but this year we have also improved in the ability to carry out developments.” – said Mattia Binotto – “The team has had courage since last winter in the choices made, bringing innovative ideas to the track and proving that they were correct. The same goes for developments ”.
Not many updates, but all centered, focused and following a single path, unlike Red Bull which moved to a clearly Ferrari-inspired floor, only to reject it by retracing its steps. Of course, Ferrari still lacks the awareness of being able to dare as done by the Anglo-Austrian team, very reactive and capable of immediately recovering from a technical misstep like the Austrian one. Further certainties need to be acquired, for this reason the planning of updates is more prudent and the introduction of an important update is followed by some GP of pure studying and understanding the car, trying to improve the performance of the car without the introduction of additional components.
“We brought a new floor that was meant to increase performance, giving us more downforce, but also improving porpoising. On a smooth track like Paul Ricard it is still difficult to judge in terms of bouncing as no one has really suffered from it. We will understand this more in some of the upcoming races.” Mattia Binotto said.
A floor update that on the track brought the advantages that were expected in Maranello, just under two tenths on the long Paul Ricard circuit, confirming the positive track-Factory correlation. The most important changes concern the entrance to the Venturi channels, where above all the outermost channel has been redesigned, and the completely redesigned lower part of the floor which now has a much more Red Bull-like conformation, with a mini speaker positioned about halfway of the floor.
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