Ferrari has already accumulated 14 seasons without winning the drivers’ world championship and 13 without taking over the teams’ championship, a long drought that drivers and champions of the stature of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel or, in his second stage, Kimi Raikkonen have suffered.
2022 has started in the best way for the Italians, with a double in the first race and a second and third place in the second, something that places not only their drivers at the top of the individual table but also the team comfortably in the top of the builders ranking.
However, at Ferrari they know perfectly well that to win a title (or both) you have to be very competitive all year long, not just during one half of the course.
In 2017 they also won, with Vettel, the first race, and were even leaders after 12 tests, in September. But falling behind in development meant that Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton became champions with some ease.
The script was similar in 2018, when Vettel won the first two races and alternated with Hamilton in the world championship lead, which he lost after his accident in Germany when he was leading the race in the rain. However, and despite how expensive that abandonment was in terms of the championship, it would not ultimately be decisive since Ferrari did not improve as much as Mercedes and in the last eight appointments, six wins were for the Germans and only one for the Cavallino .
Those were the last world championships in which Ferrari has shone (in 2019 they won three races and in 2020 and 2021, none). When team boss Mattia Binotto was asked this Sunday what they had learned from that, he was clear.
“First, I think that maintaining the level of development during a season is always a challenge not only for us, but for all the teams,” he said.
“But it is true that our competitors are very strong in that and they proved to be very strong, whereas Ferrari in the last two opportunities we had, 2017 and 2018, we lost a little bit of ground in development.
In that sense, since then Ferrari has taken a big step forward with a new wind tunnel and a new simulator, which they trust will be key. And their interpretation of the new F1 regulations for 2022 allows us to think that they are in good shape at a technical level.
“Regarding car design, we have improved our tools, which are the wind tunnel methodologies, the process and the simulator,” explains Binotto .
“And I think we are much better prepared now compared to the past to do the proper job in development as well.”
There are two other key aspects to take into account so that this is finally the year of Ferrari. The first is related to the budget limit that F1 opens in 2022, since it forces us to maximize resources and above all to get the money spent on development right.
“We also have to add that we now have a budget cap,” recalls Binotto, “which will somehow influence the rate of development and I think that’s a key point, a key element. My concern is that we need to make sure that it is It’s going to control, because that may, let me put it that way, be a game changer in the development struggle.”
The last element, and not the least important, will be the management of your pilots. In 2017 Ferrari made questionable decisions, when for example in Italy their title candidate Vettel had to slipstream Raikkonen and not the other way around, which would give the Finn pole position. In that same start, Raikkonen defended himself tooth and nail from his teammate instead of favoring him to take the lead, which would end up leading him to a fight with his rival Hamilton after which he spun.
All for not remembering the blunder of the accident at the start of the following Singapore GP … (here you can see it again).
Charles Leclerc has been ahead of Carlos Sainz in the two qualifying sessions and in the two races so far, but if what we saw in 2021 is repeated, the Madrid native will also be there on other weekends. That yes, Ferrari will have learned the lesson and will want to make clear, when the time comes, what its bet is to recover the lost crown, so it is certainly urgent that Carlos punches the table beating his neighbor in the box more sooner rather than later
Thus, despite the fact that 2022 has started in a very hopeful way for the tifosi , they know that the season is long (it is longer than ever) and that titles are not won in March or April. It will be in November when we see what has been a promising course for those from Maranello and we will know if, finally, this year yes.
Gallery: Ferrari cars with the most victories in F1
Photo by: Eric Gilbert
Photo by: Ferrari Media Center
Photo by: LAT Images
Photo by: XPB Images
Photo by: Ferrari Media Center
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Photo by: XPB Images
Photo by: XPB Images
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Photo by: XPB Images
Photo by: Ercole Colombo
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch
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Photo by: Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
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Photo by: David Phipps
Photo by: Ercole Colombo
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Photo by: XPB Images
Photo By: Sutton Motorsport Images
Photo by: LAT Images
