Monza restored Ferrari’s morale despite the fact that victory on the Italian track ended up being awarded to Max Verstappen after Charles Leclerc’s brilliant pole position.
Mattia Binotto drew a picture of positivism in the Maranello team after the Italian GP, trusting that the respite granted by the cancellation of the Russian GP, which means that right now we have two weekends without Formula 1, will allow Ferrari to analyze data and reach conclusions that restore ambition to the team.
“The fact of having more rest days will allow us to better prepare for the next races. The result of Monza, beyond the result, made us see that after four painful appointments we are on the road to recovery”.
“Leclerc’s pole position and Carlos Sainz’s third fastest time show that in qualifying we can always fight for pole position, while in the race tire degradation continues to be our great weakness. We will work on this aspect to improve, because the season will not It’s over yet and we’ll keep fighting for victories .”
In Maranello they want to rediscover the performance that disappeared after the Austrian Grand Prix and they hope that the Singapore event is the right time for it, since Marina Bay is the track that best suits the characteristics of the F1-75.
Looking instead at the last events of the calendar, the Suzuka and Austin races seem more favorable to the RB18, while in the last three they could fight for victory.
But what is the source of this renewed state of excitement at Ferrari ? Thanks to the data collected at Monza, the engineers have not closed the development of the latest evolution of the flat bottom that premiered at Paul Ricard and which apparently had a damaging impact on the red car’s tire management.
In the Italian team they suspected that the various openings of the Venturi ducts placed under the new floor slowed down a growth that had been constant throughout the course.
The first suspicions and the sound of alarm came after four races in which Ferrari showed excessive suffering in terms of tire degradation, compared to the rest of the season to date and also compared to its rivals.
Red Bull has improved in that sense, as has Mercedes, while those from Maranello seemed to have taken a step back. The test carried out by Carlos Sainz in FP1 at Monza with the two different funds, the old and the new, offered precise results.
The latest version is not badly designed and it really is a step forward compared to the old one. It may not be as big of a performance jump as expected, at least when compared to the RB18, but it didn’t show any flaws .
In addition, Ferrari found three different pieces of data that were correlative : the opinion of the Spanish driver, the feedback from the stopwatch with the same track conditions and the later confirmation of the simulations. So from there, the engineers’ attention turned to balance.
The Italians’ car has a narrower tire operating window than at the beginning of the year and degradation increases as certain parameters change. Between Friday’s free practice and the race there was a quite noticeable increase in the temperature of the asphalt and that made the rear tires suffer more.
Consequently, the degradation increased and it was clear that Ferrari was wrong to look for a setup that would offer the highest possible top speeds at Monza. Just a few degrees difference on the track was enough for the car to behave differently.
Carlos Sainz’s pace with the last set of softs and a car empty of petrol, was also lower than in the simulations, another sign that shows that they still have to work much harder to find the way back to success.
What Singapore represents for Ferrari is a great opportunity: the Marina Bay street circuit is perfectly suited to the traction and acceleration characteristics.
While the Scuderia is still working on some evolutions to try to close the gap with those from Milton Keynes: the green light to continue with the development of the F1-75 came after the Italian GP and now Ferrari is keen to make a coup. ..
