Formula 1 will return to Australia this weekend after two years of absence due to the pandemic, something that has not prevented a series of modifications to the track to improve safety (with new loopholes) and obtain a higher average speed (eliminating two curves), in order to give more overtaking opportunities.
In the 26 editions that the Australian GP has been held at Albert Park, Ferrari is the most successful team: the last of its eight victories was that of Sebastian Vettel with the SF71H in 2018, while Michael Schumacher is the Cavallino driver who more times he has managed to climb to the top of the podium on this track, doing so on up to four occasions.
After a great start to 2022, the Scuderia has returned to the top of the constructors’ standings, with an F1-75 that has proven to be a very competitive car, capable of competing and even outperforming Max Verstappen’s Red Bull RB18.
However, it seems more than obvious that this season the progress and updates could end up making the difference, so we will have to keep an eye on that particular race.
Despite this, from Ferrari they assure that their car in Australia will continue to be the same that they took to the first two races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, a car with which Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have managed to place themselves in the first positions of the drivers’ championship, ahead of the Dutch champion.
Verstappen paid dearly for his retirement at Sakhir after power problems with his RB18, the same ones that also forced Sergio Pérez to retire before the checkered flag.
Previously, Melbourne was a stop-and-go track, with similar characteristics to Sakhir, but after the changes made and taking into account that now the fastest lap should be about 5 seconds faster than in the past, many things will have changed.
On paper, it should be a track that benefits the blazingly fast RB18: Adrian Newey ‘s car in the first two races of 2022 was a very light aerodynamic car, allowing Verstappen to reach the highest top speeds and benefit from that in his struggles. side by side with Leclerc .
However, Ferrari simulations say that even with Albert Park’s new layout, it won’t really be necessary to change the aerodynamic approach that has given excellent results at the start of the 2022 season.
Therefore, and despite what was said after the Saudi Arabian GP, the Scuderia technicians could once again insist on a rear wing with more load than its rivals, especially thinking of enhancing the characteristics of the F1-75 , which comes out from slow corners with plenty of traction and superb acceleration from the 066/7 engine .
In this way, it is easy to predict that the first big update packages at Ferrari will be divided between the Emilia Romagna GP in Imola and the Spanish GP in Barcelona, following the same line as other teams, also due to the new cost limit of F1 in 2022, which has changed the way of working in the factories with the most resources on the grid.
