If you’re a Ferrari fan, you surely don’t need to be reminded that the illustrious Scuderia had a disastrous season in 2020. It was the team’s lowest showing in the Formula 1 World Championship in forty years. In the 2020 F1 Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari came in sixth place.
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Strength and Initiative
In any other racing team, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto would have been let go for such a dismal season. If he were a football coach, he would have left sooner rather than later.
Mattia Binotto has been team principal of Scuderia Ferrari since 2018. Binotto was able to maintain the group’s confidence. For a team that only had two team principles over the course of 21 years, Ferrari has had three team principals since 2014.
In 2014, former Ferrari chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne assumed control. He was reputed to continually put pressure on his principles. He exerted such pressure that everyone needed their mobile phones day and night. If he sent a text or message and did not receive a response within 30 seconds, there would be trouble.
In 2018, Marchionne passed away unexpectedly, and Louis Camilleri took over as his successor. Camilleri was aware of the value of stability and investing.
However, the future is questionable in light of Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri’s resignation, which raises questions about Mattia Binotto’s role as team principal.
On December 10, 2020, Louis Camilleri announced his resignation as chairman of Philip Morris International and CEO of Ferrari. Prior to the season’s last Grand Prix weekend, he announced his immediate resignation from both positions, citing personal reasons. He is temporarily replaced by Chairman John Elkann.
Ferrari said that throughout the 2020 season, team Ferrari underwent a restructure of its technical department to enable more improved and effective implementation when asked if there will be a restructuring of management owing to the sluggish performances.
They added that Ferrari’s organizational structure is constantly evolving in order to deal with the implementation of new rules in 2021.
They said that Scuderia Ferrari’s top management has always had and continues to have Mattia Binotto’s complete support.
The performance of the team’s car thus far this season, according to Ferrari Formula 1 head Mattia Binotto, is “a relief,” showing that its development work is progressing as planned.
In 2020, Ferrari had its worst F1 season in 40 years, finishing sixth in the constructors’ standings with just three podium finishes.
The team struggled with a slow car design and a lack of straight-line speed, which it attempted to address with the revised SF21 car for this season.
Charles Leclerc qualified for the first two races in fourth place, which has been a success so far. At Imola two weeks ago, Leclerc came in fourth, ahead of home teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in fifth.
It has put Ferrari in the lead of the battle for the midfield, fighting head-to-head with McLaren, and demonstrated that the team is improving again following last year’s setbacks.
The team’s development effort was correlated between the factory and the track, which helped the team’s performance move in the right direction, as team principal Binotto noted.
The relief, according to Binotto, lies in realizing that we are moving in the right directions.
“It is crucial to note that simulations and wind tunnel work now correlate at the track more accurately than they did in the past.
“This inspires faith in the tools and our ability to design for the future. That, in my opinion, was the most crucial item, so it is certainly a relief in that regard.
“It’s crucial that the car is performing better so that we can finish the racing weekend with a better result.
“We frequently stated that our performance from the previous year was unacceptable for a Ferrari brand, so we were aware that these areas were crucial to us, demonstrating advancements in each one.
In the teams’ standings, McLaren presently leads Ferrari by seven points as a result of Lando Norris’s podium finish at Imola, which he achieved after overtaking Leclerc on the restart following the red light.
In 2021, what happened to Ferrari?
Ferrari made the decision to forgo season-long development of its 2021 car in order to focus more time on its 2022 counterpart. It has caused its competitors to anticipate a potent car coming from the team’s headquarters in Maranello, Italy, next year.
Ferrari will be back in 2021.
A new hybrid system’s launch assisted Ferrari in taking third place in part. It was scheduled to launch in 2022, but after opting to launch earlier in late 2021, it was prepared in September and ran eight races as a test.
Why was Ferrari 2020 so sluggish?
Ferrari discovered in 2020 that they were outclassed in terms of engine power and aerodynamics. From a ding-dong fight to a walkover, they had transitioned. At the US Grand Prix last year, the crucial time had occurred. The FIA published a technical directive banning specific fuel flow levels, which are rigorously regulated.
In 2022, will Ferrari make a return?
Ferrari has introduced the vehicle they anticipate will put the most recognizable name in Formula 1 back in front of the field in 2022.
Ferrari is aiming to capitalize on the blank slate of F1’s rules revolution to challenge for wins and titles again this season. The team hasn’t won a championship in 14 years and is experiencing one of the longest droughts in their illustrious history.
As a homage to the Scuderia’s first cars combined with the cutting-edge design of these new F1 vehicles, they will do so in a fierce-looking F1-75 car with a darker red and black livery.
Charles Leclerc, a teammate, acknowledged that expectations are “very, very high” while Carlos Sainz praised the vehicle as “aggressive, radical, and gorgeous.”
Team manager Mattia Binotto continued, “I’d like the F1-75 to be ready for the fight on the track at every grand prix to go toe-to-toe with our adversaries.
Ferrari, the most famous and successful team in the sport, has recently transitioned from being a consistent title contender to a midfield competitor. However, the team’s improvement from last year, when they placed third in the standings behind Mercedes and Red Bull, plus the fact that they have long been focusing on mastering the new rules give them reason for confidence.
The rules have been changed in an effort to increase the thrill of wheel-to-wheel racing and Grand Prix competition, and Ferrari, which has more resources than most, will hope the change works in their favor.
The F1-75 was unveiled in Maranello and gets its name from a significant milestone for the Prancing Horse—the 75th anniversary of Enzo Ferrari’s introduction of the original Ferrari automobile.
Can Ferrari resurrect itself?
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari produced a stunning comeback. Vettel won the race but fell to second place due to a five-second penalty.
Unfavorable terms like “spineless,” “ridiculous,” and “pointless” have been used to criticize Ferrari’s performance in Formula One this year. Only four podium results were achieved by Italian automakers in the first six races of the season, leaving them more than 100 points behind Mercedes in the Constructor’s Standings.
The Canadian Grand Prix, at least in terms of making an impact, appears to have altered the situation. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari won the race, but due to a five-second penalty for an unsafe maneuver, he was forced to settle for second place on the podium. Charles Leclerc, the other Ferrari competitor, finished third. Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes finished first, but the results made it apparent that Ferrari can still mount a season-long comeback.
Over the past few years, Ferrari has been steadily gaining ground on Mercedes, and the Montreal track proved ideal for them. Hamilton claims that Ferrari’s engine mode and straight-line speed were so superior that he was unable to compete with Vettel on the track. That was also evident throughout the race, as Vettel not only won the pole but also held the lead for the bulk of it.
Lewis Hamilton, the current world champion, said, “I’m hoping this marks a turning point for them because I think the rest of the season will be filled with intense competition. That would be wonderful.”
Mattia Binotto, team president of Ferrari, wasn’t as upbeat. He was tired of making comeback predictions that might not materialize. He reportedly said, “Although it is a circuit that is power sensitive and rear limited, it is not the same as Barcelona, which is front limited, making it exceedingly difficult to gauge and predict the performance. Rather than Barcelona, Bahrain is more comparable. Although we were aware that moving to Canada would bring us closer to Mercedes, I doubt we anticipated exactly how close. Since there have been no upgrades since we owned the automobile in Spain, let’s suppose that it still has all of our weaknesses. That is all there is to it.”
He continued, “There will be other races that are not like Canada, so we need to keep fighting and confronting them. We need to work, attempt to better.”
Ferrari may still trail Mercedes by 123 points, but the Scuderia has gained some impetus in its pursuit of the Silver Arrows. There should be a lot of confidence for everyone at Maranello given the way Vettel controlled the race, won it, and how he was punished for what many analysts believed to be an unpunishable act. Ferrari needs to capitalize on their newfound confidence and work to get the greatest performance possible out of their SF90 because the season is still far from over.
In 2022, will Ferrari do better?
Many have suggested that Ferrari has created the best power unit for 2022 after a streak of successful Ferrari-powered teams at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Following the Scuderia’s 1-2 finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix, where Haas’ Ferrari-powered VF-22 finished fifth with Kevin Magnussen, Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner claims Ferrari presently has the best engine on the 2022 F1 grid.
Ferrari was largely considered to have had the greatest engine during the 2019 season, but after an FIA inquiry into the legality of their power unit, they suffered greatly in 2020.
With this year’s F1 power units having to make the initial adaptations to run on E10 fuels, the Prancing Horse appears to have reclaimed the top spot in 2022.
Ferrari reportedly made up the horsepower disadvantage caused by the change in fuel composition before the season even began, according to reports from Italy, and Steiner is certain that the Scuderia’s victory in Bahrain was no fluke.
“That gives them a lot of respect because they were in our shoes, they had to take a lot of crap about [their performance], and they just did their homework and came back with something really amazing.”