97 and 80. The numbers that obsess Ferrari and that illustrate the advantage accumulated by Red Bull in the first thirteen races of the Formula 1 2022 world championship. An important margin, certainly bigger than the true real values seen on track so far, that show a F1-75 car which was clearly capable of winning more than the four Grands Prix (three by Charles Leclerc, one win for Carlos Sainz) ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
The reasons behind such a huge gap have been addressed several times this season, it doesn’t make too much sense to go into detail again. Briefly, we can not distance ourselves from the facts if we think that there were three macro-problems led to the existing gap against the team from Milton Keynes: reliability issues, a few mistakes from the driver line-up and strategies that were not always great.
This last point leads back to another element that should be optimized: the clear identification of roles regarding the driver line-up. One of the factors that allowed Max Verstappen to take off is precisely that he was put at the center of the technical and sporting project, sacrificing performance and making it clear to Sergio Perez that he is a number 2 driver for Red Bull.
In Maranello something is starting to move as the idea of imposing team orders on the drivers is no longer so strange. Laurent Mekies, sporting director of the Italian side, spoke about the situation, but set very specific limits: the team orders would come “only to get to the best result for the team”. A “broad” statement that says everything and nothing.
“There is more discussion outside Ferrari than within the team about team orders – Laurent Mekies continued – But more seriously, once again, we have always been very clear: we aim to have the best result for the team; Ferrari comes first” – he added.
A strategy that at some point can become ineffective. Hence the idea of identifying, perhaps belated, of a number one driver who can oppose Max Verstappen enjoying the full support of the other driver: “[…] And then obviously there will be a point where we will have to focus more on a driver over the other if the championship position requires it. So, it doesn’t mean waiting for the mathematical difference but it means being at the point of the season where you think it’s right to do it”.
The difficulty of Ferrari in establishing a first driver also depends on the exponential growth of Carlos Sainz who, in performance, is getting closer and closer to Charles Leclerc, while the Monegasque driver is seen by the fans and the media as the one who can bring back the title in Maranello.
“Carlos has made great progress since the start of the season – Laurent Mekies explained to the official F1 portal – At the beginning of the year we made no secret of the fact that the car did not fit him very well. We had to work a lot with him, with his engineers, with everyone at Maranello to make sure we could give him something he felt more comfortable with. And these things take time. Slowly it seems that we are heading in the right direction “.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
“Make someone a leader? We know we have two very, very good drivers. We treat them so that we can maximize our positions in the championship and we want them as fast as possible.” – the Ferrari sporting director explained.
And with this last step we return to the start: Ferrari lacks the true will to establish hierarchies. It is an organizational model in which the team believes but that, according to what could be seen so far in 2022, has not produced positive effects. It is possible to think of continuing without a plan of focusing on a main driver in a year in which, also due to poor reliability, the titles will probably remain a dream. But when the Prancing Horse will have fixed the reliability difficulties it will be hard to challenge for the Drivers’ championship having to also manage a possible internal “feud” which, potentially, can become harmful. There are illustrious precedents in the history of motorsport to support this evidence.
Leave a Reply