Ferrari conquered the front row of the grid at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix: the Maranello team reacted in the best possible way after experiencing a huge disappointment at Imola, countering the pace of Red Bull on a track that no one knew until they went out to shoot Friday.
The first striking fact is that the Italians once again built a car that was immediately competitive, something that once again confirms that the Prancing Horse simulation system has taken a big step forward in the last two years, closing a technological gap that Ferrari dragged for some time.
The wind tunnel upgrade and acquisition of a new Dynisma simulator from DMG has changed one of the most important aspects of F1, putting Ferrari at the forefront.
The signs indicated that for the layout of the most famous city in Florida, the most appropriate was a fairly light aerodynamic configuration: those from Maranello had prepared a new rear wing for Miami that was not even mounted on the F1-75. The technicians led by the engineer Matteo Togninalli , in fact, preferred to repeat and opt for the spoon-shaped rear wing, the same one used in Imola.
The layout of the American city alternates long high-speed straights (Sergio Pérez set the fastest with 334.6 km/h passing through the speed trap) with twisty parts, some even too much, according to several drivers.
The Milton Keynes team, following its philosophy, has focused on unloaded aerodynamics, while the Scuderia has changed its plans over the weekend: the first practice session was aimed at familiarizing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz with the circuit and for this they opted for the use of a stronger aerodynamic package.
The track turned out to be slipperier and less grippy than expected, so the Ferrari technicians preferred to focus on a setup that would take care of the tyres. With the lighter wing they would surely have reached top speeds closer to those of the RB18s, but the tire wear would certainly have been higher.
And since the Italians won in Melbourne taking advantage of better tire management, they did not follow Red Bull ‘s strategy and preferred to bet on the Imola rear wing, also limiting their options in terms of the front wing, mounting a lighter one, as was the case in Jeddah, discarding the new parts.
As the movable flap had a fairly large amplitude and was equipped with a nolder , in the end it was decided to remove the Gurney flap to file down the trailing edge and reduce the car’s drag a bit.
Red Bull , which will start from the second row, will try to take advantage of the 10 km/h difference it has over the red cars to attack Leclerc and Sainz on the straights, while Ferrari will try to play the game being superior in general race pace , in addition to trying to take better care of the duration of the tires, key in a race that Pirelli hopes will be two stops.
