Ferrari has decided not to introduce the new bottom tested in the first free practice session in Australia at the next Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. It’s not that they haven’t managed to get it ready in time, but the simulations insist that the F1-75 has performed so well in the opening three races that there is no reason to make any major modifications.
Those from Maranello have won two victories with Charles Leclerc in Bahrain and Melbourne, in addition to two double podiums, which places them at the top of the drivers’ and constructors’ standings in the 2022 season.
The old bottom of the Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The new bottom of the Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
In the simulation department directed by Marco Adurno, they prefer not to introduce the new parts in a weekend with a single hour of free practice, which will be held before the qualifying session on Friday due to the sprint format, although at Ferrari they leave nothing to chance.
The Italians will do some retouching to avoid the recurring porpoising and, although they have shown a great adaptation to all types of layouts, Imola could be totally different.
The predictions predict an event that will go through the rain, at least on Friday, so it would be more difficult to study the behavior of the single-seater with updates.
It will be interesting to see which team will be able to adapt the cars to extreme wet or intermediate tyres, bearing in mind that they only got to run for a couple of hours in these conditions in pre-season when Pirelli held a session on wet tarmac. artificially in Barcelona.
There, several tankers filled the track with thousands of liters, and only Ferrari and McLaren put on the tires that evacuate more water, while Williams, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo and Red Bull took a few laps with the intermediates until they put on the dry ones.
Those from Maranello carried out two test sessions with the Milanese company in 2021 with the 18-inch compounds, with a test in Jerez with the SF90 first, and another in Paul Ricard later. Alpine, for its part, concluded its work on the French track to continue developing the current Cinturatos on the same dates.
The Prancing Horse team, therefore, could take another small advantage from the planning that has been done for 2022, dedicating time and resources before the rest of the rivals.
Mercedes had given up its two days of testing at Paul Ricard, justifying the decision because of the budget cap amid a title fight against Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Carlos Sainz is expected to try to erase the black weekend he had in Australia when he lands in Imola, as the Spaniard suffered a spin at the start of the race, after choosing the hard ones for the start.
The gravel excursion was just the icing on the bitter cake for the Spaniard in Melbourne for all the problems he suffered. Sainz is aware that the performance of the F1-75 allows him to be in the fight for the world championship, and the Emilia Romagna GP could be the ideal place for his recovery.
