The next round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the British Grand Prix, marks the start of a very important summer for Scuderia Ferrari in view of the Maranello team’s prospects of challenging Red Bull for the world championship. The race at the Silverstone circuit has to represent the relaunch of the Ferrari F1-75 car, which has not won in two months, since the Australian Grand Prix, despite the fact that the pace was constantly there at each Grand Prix.
On the other hand, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was able to collected 90 points during the last four events, 68 points more than Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, who was still leading the 2022 Formula 1 world championship by 19 points ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, when Charles suffered the first power unit issue while he was in P1 and was heading for an easy victory.
But despite the poor results caused by several reliability problems, the pace and performance of the F1-75 car has not been lacking on any type of track in this first part of the season, which remains a a promising sign for the Maranello team.
Two weeks ago at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada, Carlos Sainz came very close to taking his first F1 win, but was unable to overtake Max Verstappen despite the fact that his race pace was slightly superior to that of the Dutchman, mainly in the final part of the Montreal race. This shows clearly that the Italian side has reaped less than the real potential of the F1-75 car so far and it also means that the next event, which takes place at the Silverstone circuit, represents a key moment for Ferrari’s chances of fighting for the world championships this year.
In the British Grand Prix, Formula 1 will once again race on a very fast track, similar from this point of view to the Baku City Circuit and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, but with a majore difference: Silverstone is much more front-limited on tyres. This means that while in the previous two races, in Montreal and Baku, the traction out of the corners was a very important factor for overall pace, at Silverstone aerodynamic efficiency will play a key role for lap time. It is therefore very important of a car to have a lot of speed into corners, with a precise front end that gives confidence in the drivers.
When it comes to aerodynamic efficiency, that basically means for the car to have the ability of showing low drag without the need to sacrifice a lot of downforce, the Maranello team’s F1-75 car has almost matched the RB18 in recent races. We no longer say the huge differences in speed on the straights which were clear in the start of the season, especially in Saudi Arabia, when Charles had no chance to defent against Max Verstappen on the straight.
The Monegasque driver also has a new engine, after taking grid penalties in Canada for using new power unit parts. Taking into consideration the Silverstone track layout, engine power also remains a key factor.
Given the fact that Sergio Perez suffered a DNF in Canada due to a gearbox issue, this shows that Red Bull can also suffer reliability issues, as was the case in the start of the season. Porpoising, which has been a major debate topic in the last few weeks, especially after the Baku race, will most likely be less of a problem in the British Grand Prix and this should favour Scuderia Ferrari. But the Ferrari F1-75 car showed it is a versatile one from a set-up point of view and was fast even when the Maranello technicians had to use a higher ground clearance when porpoising became more of a problem, like in Azerbaijan.
It will also be interesting to see of any other teams will bring a secondary floor stays, as Mercedes did in practice for the Canadian Grand Prix, despite the fact that this possibility was officially confirmed only a few days ahead of the Montreal weekend. This time the FIA will most likely take action after the meeting to decide on a possible regulatory change and on technical directive number 39.
NEW REAR WING FOR BOTH DRIVERS
Scuderia Ferrari has focused a lot of its development work on the aerodynamics of its rear wing, evaluating specifications which increase speed on the straight when the Drag Reduction System is open, because it is precisely in such moments that Red Bull RB18 proved more effective than Ferrari before.
But starting with the race at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, when the Italian side introduced its a new high-downforce wing, it has changed the design of the movable flap: when the DRS is now in use, the flap offers a wider passage for air, which reduces drag and increases the top speeds.
In Montreal, the Maranello team also introduced its new medium/low-downforce rear wing configuration, with an arched main profile but with less incidence. The new part was mounted only on the F1-75 car of Charles Leclerc and proved very efficient at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which means that it will most likely be seen on both cars next weekend in the UK. This rear wing specification was not used by Carlos Sainz in Canada, as Ferrari did not have enough time to make two parts and the Spanish driver raced with the old specification, like in Saudi Arabia and Australia, which didn’t help him in his duel with Max Verstappen for the race win.
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Alongside the new wing there was a slightly revised beam wing, featuring two profiles with a slightly reduced chord in the area where they recline on the endplate. Red Bull has been much more aggressive on this side, by removing the upper profile of the beam wing in Azerbaijan and Montreal, to be able to face less drag. Until the British Grand Prix, the team led by Christian Horner proved to be the only one to remove one of the two profiles.
The criticality of the less loaded Ferrari wing lies in the management of the rear tyres, but at Silverstone it should be slightly less predominant. One major issue will be represented in fact by how the front tyres will behave, given the fact that the Silverstone circuit is a lot more front-limited as compared to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. And we still remember the difficulties faced by Charles Leclerc last time out in Montreal when exiting the corners with oversteer under traction as a result of a more lazy rear.
Scuderia Ferrari used last week’s Pirelli 2023 tyre test at the Mugello circuit as an opportunity to continue collecting information data on this specification, as the F1-75 car ran with the new rear wing. Next weekend in the British Grand Prix, the new specification should be more congenial and advantageous than in Canada if the asphalt conditions work in its favour.
