Why British GP qualifying shows Ferrari still hasn’t fully understood 2022 F1 regulations. Ferrari still hasn't fully understood the F1 rules and regulations introduced two years ago.

Let’s take a closer look at what happened in yesterday’s qualifying session for the British Grand Prix. As we saw in the comparative analysis, George Russell’s pole time was 901 milliseconds faster than Max Verstappen’s time last year.

Mercedes was clearly the team that best exploited the mixed conditions and the cool track temperatures at Silverstone (in Q3, the track was at 23°C and the ambient temperature was 15°C). Moreover, they used the hardest Pirelli compounds: C1 Hard, C2 Medium, and C3 Soft. In this scenario, the W15 was by far the best car on the track.

Mercedes strong everywhere, Haas extracts the maximum from the Ferrari package
George Russell set the best sector times in sectors two an three. George lost the top spot only in the first sector (third behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton) to, surprise, the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg. The American team maximizes the good traction qualities of the power unit package supplied by Ferrari. Not surprisingly, the only sector where Carlos Sainz is competitive is the first, but the situation changes significantly in the other two sectors.

The W15 is competitive everywhere, showing good traction and being the fastest in fast corners like Copse, Maggots, and Becketts. Lando Norris stayed very close, only losing out significantly in T3, possibly due to a mistake he confirmed he made at the end of qualifying.

Of course, a Red Bull in fourth position is notable, but it should be emphasized that Verstappen’s performance was heavily affected by damage to the floor after his excursion into the gravel in Q1.

Ferrari still hasn’t fully understood the 2022 regulations
Scuderia Ferrari’s problems are well known. The new update generates porpoising/bouncing, and for this reason, the team’s engineers have decided to temporarily shelve it until they have some answers. Unfortunately, the Maranello team still hasn’t fully understood how to extract performance from the car concept that debuted in 2022. Silverstone, with its high-speed corners, is where these ground effect cars should be able to express their full potential. Seeing an SF-24 still so far behind is not a good sign.

Hoping for a recovery in the race, considering that the specifications used on the two Maranello cars are from the Emilia Romagna GP, is quite utopian.