Ferrari faces the Australian Grand Prix with confidence, relying on the great adaptability of the F1-75 to the different tracks, so the technicians led by Enrico Cardile are focusing on the red car’s evolution.
Mattia Binotto , director of Ferrari, explained that these changes will only be introduced when Maranello is sure that they will contribute to improving performance.
“In the evolutions from here on, the competitive front changes: when you have two cars as similar in performance as Ferrari and Red Bull, each package [of improvements] will have its weight because one or two tenths will make the difference at this point in the race. season”.
“There is a budget limit, and I am insisting every day to the FIA to do the checks, because if not, we run the risk of distorting the final result in some way.”
Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s technical director for the single-seater sector, responded to those words in La Gazzetta dello Sport : “Our first objective is to ensure that the championship is clean, we want whoever deserves it to win. The current regulations require many more resources for controls: now we have to inspect what the teams do at home”.
“But for financial controls we have a very capable team, led by our colleague Federico Lodi. Mattia [Binotto] can rest assured, we are doing everything we can to keep the situation under control. We have tax experts who check the [financial] balances and the parts that are installed on the machines to make sure it is billed correctly.
Ferrari is planning the first upgrade packages for the F1-75: based on initial indications, we can anticipate that, for Imola, we will see the first interventions aimed at the aerodynamic efficiency of the red car and the lightening of some parts.
The aim is to remove about 3kg from the car, which is similarly overweight to almost all F1 cars except Alfa Romeo, which even allows itself to use ballast to balance its C42. At Maranello they are working in the wind tunnel to reduce drag and get closer to the top speeds that the Red Bull RB18 is capable of on the straights.
On the other hand, as far as the battle with porpoising is concerned, we will have to wait for the Spanish GP to be held in Barcelona. When they arrive in Spain, Ferrari should have the revised bottom, thanks to which the negative effect of rebound should be greatly reduced, allowing the F1-75 to run with a lower height compared to the asphalt, without losing the aerodynamic load that is generated under the car through the two Venturi channels.
Ferrari will therefore arrive at Albert Park with the technical package seen in the first two Grands Prix of the season, but will take advantage of the start of the European season to introduce the first technical innovations.
This year the game will be very tactical: given that the evolutions will be conditioned by the restrictions imposed by the budget limit, it will be interesting to know when and how the rival teams will incorporate the novelties, knowing that the economic availability for the changes will be conditioned and the season, of 23 races, it will be very long.
Releasing everything at once might be too risky, so it may be best to introduce innovations only when you’re sure they’ll improve performance. And those now ahead, like Ferrari and Red Bull, will have a double advantage over those like Mercedes rushing to try and close the performance gap that the W13 has shown in the first two events.
