Scuderia Ferrari leads the two 2022 F1 World Championships after showing clear superiority at the Bahrain GP. The F1-75 left Sakhir with a one-two thanks to first place for Charles Leclerc and second place for Carlos Sainz, confirming feelings that the Maranello-based team is ahead of its rivals in terms of development.
The Italians acknowledged that they would not be bringing updates to the next Saudi GP, preferring to continue discovering and increasing their knowledge of the F1-75.
“There will be no news for Yeda,” Binotto explained. “The most important thing for us at this start of the season is to understand the car to get the most out of it, because we still have hidden potential in the F1-75 . And then there will be some developments that we are already working on.”
The team from Maranello, therefore, will have to take advantage of its current advantage, which is not only technical, but also economic. Red Bull and Mercedes will have to commit financially to correct the problems that have arisen in their cars, while Ferrari can devote its resources to developing the car, seeking even more performance.
Ferrari fears possible cost cap interpretations in F1
“For us [the budget cap] is not an ally,” Binotto said. “It really is a difficulty, as I think it is for the other teams, but we are very careful in everything we do not to end up with a suspension.”
Stefano Domenicali , Formula 1’s president and chief executive, said the FIA must make very careful checks on the spending limit, otherwise the current system will collapse.
“FIA controls are essential,” added Binotto . “Because today we have three different regulations: the sporting one, the technical one and now also the financial one. As with any regulation, everyone tries their hardest to get an advantage, so it is the obligation of the FIA to carry out strict and very careful controls, which go into detail about how the money is spent.
“If that doesn’t happen, we run the risk of leaving open loopholes that can create problems. It’s not just a simple spending limit, but a real regulation and it has to be applied as such.”
Mattia’s message has a fairly clear objective: just as there are gray areas in the technical regulations that the technicians of each team know how to interpret very well, Ferrari believes that some experts could also look for loopholes in the financial regulations, creating worrying differences in terms of the money that one team can spend compared to another.
