At Spa-Francorchamps, Ferrari went through one of the most difficult weekends of the season, not so much from the point of view of the result, but also in part, but because of the lack of performance that forced Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc to act as mere spectators before the full display of Red Bull in the Ardennes.
The Austrian team had already shown great pace on Friday, but on very different track conditions. In free practice the asphalt temperatures were very low, between 20º and 15º, while in the race this Sunday they shot up to 36º.
That, on paper at least, should have been an advantage for the Italians, who tend to be quicker in hot temperatures, and at the same time could have caused problems for Red Bull in terms of tire management.
None of this happened, however, as the Newey -designed cars were even more dominant, while Ferrari suffered from tire management problems.
The weekend in Belgium gave way to the introduction of Technical Directive 39, a measure devised by the FIA to solve the problems that porpoising was causing before the summer break. So far in 2022, never before has Ferrari had such difficulties as in Spa, falling short of being able to fight for victory and even struggling to maintain third position on the podium against George Russell’s Mercedes.
At the end of the race, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto spoke into the microphones of Sky UK , stating that the TD39 was not related to the poor performance of the F1-75s of Sainz and Leclerc .
“No, the truth is that it is not the case. I don’t know how it has affected the other teams, but as far as we are concerned, it has had a completely insignificant influence,” said the Maranello team manager.
“So that’s not the answer to our lack of performance today. As I’ve said, this is the kind of track where you need great efficiency, both in terms of aerodynamics and power unit, and I think Red Bull just had a better package from that point of view”.
“Also, they had better tire degradation. It had nothing to do with the bottom of the car, so that’s not the reason. We have to look for other reasons to turn the situation around. The Red Bulls were more faster than us and that’s it”, Binotto concluded.
