Scuderia Ferrari needs a strong weekend in the next round of the 2022 Formula 1 championship after the setback suffered at the Imola circuit last time out, but the Italian side will not bring its “main” upgrade package for the F1-75 until after the next event in Miami.
Despite the fact that it made som small changes to the F1-75 car during the pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International circuit, mainly to the floor in a bid to reduce the bouncing issues, Scuderia Ferrari has not introduced any new significant components since the start of the 2022 Formula 1 championship, except for a a lower-downforce rear wing for the demands of the Jeddah Corniche circuit in Saudi Arabia.
The Maranello team tested its first big update of the season during the preparations for the Australian Grand Prix, using a modified diffuser on Charles Leclerc’s car during the first free practice session at the Albert Park circuit, but decided not to use it for the rest of the Australian weekend, given the fact that it was just a test designed to gather data for Ferrari’s development plan.
The Italian side then decided not to bring its update for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola due to the Sprint race format which did not provide enough time to test it, with only one free practice session scheduled for Friday ahead of the qualifying session in Imola. A new floor will not come at the next race in Miami either, as Scuderia Ferrari is instead focusing on a new, circuit-specific downforce configuration for the Miami International Autodrome while also being confident that the basic characteristics remain strong enough for Ferrari to still be able to challenge Red Bull even without major updates.
This means that there will most likely be further tweaks with the goal of reducing the porpoising which is affecting all teams and is costing Ferrari some performance too, even though not as much as Mercedes:
“We will not have the main one in Miami but still we have a few new parts on the car,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed when commenting on the moment the team’s first significant developments will be used this season – “Miami is a high-speed circuit compared to the ones we had so far. So certainly in terms of downforce, we’ll run something different. We’re still working on the porpoising that as you can see is quite visible, certainly more than Red Bull. And in there, there is also performance to try to get. This is the [focus] for Miami. The main upgrades will come soon after.” – the Ferrari boss added.
The approach Ferrari has taken in this start of the season has paid off in that it has scored two races victories from the first four events, but it is completely different to what title rival Red Bull has done: the Austrian team brought a major upgrade during pre-season testing session in Bahrain and has gradually introduced several other small updates since that moment, including revised lightweight versions of existing components, which proved its efficiency at the Imola circuit.
There are conflicting reports about Red Bull’s overweight RB18 and exactly how much it might have saved as a result of its latest lightweight upgrade: before the start of the season (in the Bahrain GP), Red Bull was said to be as much as 20kg over the weight limit. It is likely to be considerably less than that now, potentially under 10kg, with around 4kg dropped between Australia and Imola alone.
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Of course, Red Bull did not want to reveal anything in term of gains during the Imola weekend, as team principal Christian Horner just acknowledged “we took a bit of a risk” by bringing some new parts into a sprint weekend. At the same time, the Red Bull boss feels Scuderia Ferrari will continue to remain the main direct competitor to Red Bull during the 2021 Formula 1 campaign:
“It’s so early in the championship and there’s going to be swings and roundabouts. Obviously the DNFs have been costly, particularly for Max, but it’s a long, long season and we’ll take a lot of confidence out of this weekend. For the championship, it was important for us to take some points off Ferrari, which we’ve done in both championship tables. Ferrari have got a great car, they’ve got great drivers, they’ve been unlucky at this race. But for sure they’re going to be super competitive in two weeks’ time and I think it’s going to be like that for the whole season.” – Christian Horner explained.
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