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 the team’s competitors to anticipate a potent vehicle coming from the team’s headquarters in Maranello, Italy, next year.
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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.
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Laurent Mekies, a Ferrari engineer, has stated that the team’s development of the 2021 car is now almost complete, with focus focused totally on the new age of F1 when it dawns in 2022. However, he adds that this does not imply they have stopped working on the SF21’s shortcomings.
This season, the million-dollar issue is: When should teams start thinking about next year’s car, when the significant set of rule changes take effect? However, other teams, like Ferrari, have had to balance development on this year’s car with that of next year’s machine. For Haas, the solution was to focus immediately on next year’s rules at the expense of this season.
Mekies, a Ferrari Racing Director and Head of Track Area, explained that the Scuderia has made the switch and is not continuing to develop this year’s car at Paul Ricard in front of this weekend’s French Grand Prix.
“From an automotive development standpoint, we have already taken our selections,” he declared. There won’t be a significant upgrade to address these issues [on the SF21] until 2022 at the earliest.
The Frenchman clarified that Ferrari will continue to work on understanding the problems with the SF21 even though they are not evolving it in the conventional sense of frequently producing new parts.
But you can always work on [the problems] by simply understanding them better, and if you understand them better an either because you correlate them better or you simply understand what are the reasons why we are performing a little less in those circumstances an it can open the door to solutions that you can already apply.
And because of this, coming here after a few races in which we experienced a lot of slow-speed bends is still a nice test for us. We want to assess how we improved and whether we gained any new knowledge. And this is the strategy we’re using to fight this weekend.
In the standings heading into the French Grand Prix, Ferrari is only two points ahead of McLaren, but their drivers are anticipating a return to “reality” following surprise pole positions for Charles Leclerc in Monaco and Baku, as well as a podium finish for Carlos Sainz in the Principality.
Massa: “There are so many reasons” why Ferrari is struggling
Felipe Massa believes that in their attempt to return to the head of the Formula 1 field, former team Ferrari has committed “too many blunders.”
The Scuderia’s current driver lineup, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, received praise from the 2008 World Championship runner-up, who claimed that the pair “complete each other” within the squad.
Massa believes that the company needs to reclaim the “coldness” in its decision-making that brought about prior success for the team, which hasn’t won a Drivers’ title since 2007 and a Constructors’ title since 2008. This is because of the increased scrutiny that comes with being a Ferrari driver.
Although the speed gap to Honda and Mercedes is believed to have decreased in recent weeks, Massa believes that the power unit has been a significant contributor to the team’s underperformance in the previous two seasons.
The squad needs to restore its cutthroat streak to succeed, the 11-time race winner continued.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Libero Quotidiano, the Brazilian explained why Ferrari has struggled in recent years: “So many reasons, too many blunders.” “In Ferrari, you endure a lot of pressure from the media and fan devotion.
“Maranello is a racing team that requires sound judgment. We had [Stefano] Domenicali, [Jean] Todt, Ross Brawn, and Rory Byrne in our Ferrari.
“Charles is quick, and Sainz works well with the team; Leclerc and Sainz complement one another. The engine, which has less horsepower than Mercedes and Honda, is the source of the issue rather than the drivers.
Regarding the Drivers’ Championship battle this season, Massa stated that he would like to see Max Verstappen win his first championship, giving him the chance to defeat “one of the greatest in history” in Lewis Hamilton.
The former Ferrari driver remarked, “I would hope Max, even though Mercedes and Hamilton are expanding.
“The German cars are coming up to the Red Bulls in terms of performance after leading the field at the start of the season. Hamilton has closed the gap that existed before a few general practitioners.
“Verstappen is quick, fearless, and makes the most of the car, but occasionally he goes too far.
“Hamilton is incredibly talented. He is wise. He also has the experience that could help him win his eighth championship.
“Sports history reveals that the reign of the expert champion is continuously threatened by a talent. Max has a style I admire. Although the Dutch lad has a chance to defeat one of history’s finest, Hamilton remains the king and deserves the eighth title.
How did Ferrari F1 fare?
Since F1 racing began, Scuderia Ferrari has been the most successful and well-known racing team, taking home more victories and championships than any other team. Everyone is wondering what happened to Ferrari F1 now that it is obvious that Ferrari is going through a dry spell.
The team Ferrari had some difficult seasons that resulted in the worst season and finish in forty years due to technical troubles, management concerns, CEO Louis Camilleri’s unexpected resignation, regulation constraints, engine rule changes, slower cars, and inconsistent performances from drivers.
Ferrari had not accomplished this feat since 1992 when it went without a victory for the second straight season in 2021. Since then, Ferrari has been attempting to overtake Red Bull and Mercedes as the two most successful racing teams in Formula One. Let’s investigate what occurred at Ferrari F1 and what is now going on.
Check out the great products from the official F1 store here if you’re looking for some F1 memorabilia.
Grand Prix of France lessons
After the French Grand Prix, Ferrari faced one of its most difficult periods when Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc missed the points due to a terrible afternoon of tire trouble.
The afternoon had revealed a fundamental flaw in Ferrari’s front tyre management, which sparked a thorough investigation back in Maranello to try to address.
The team has not since had such a miserable afternoon thanks to the quick response and successful attempt to grasp the issues.
Binotto discusses the findings made by the team and describes how in-depth the analysis was.
“We attempted to approach the exercise back in Maranello in terms of: Do we have an issue on our car, in terms of idea, which is bringing that type of tyre wear?,” adds Binotto.
“We were the ones that were, on average, wearing the most on the front if we look at not just France but all the races that came right before France. So, was that as a result of a car concept, additional car setup, tyre management, or driving style?
“Therefore, at the time, we tried to change the parameters of the car concept, such as the suspension geometry and weight distribution.
“We used a variety of simulations, including driver simulators and off-track simulations, to map the relationship between car design and tyre wear and determine whether we could possibly imitate the tyre wear we experienced in France by shifting the car design concepts.
“The setup was then worked on. Consequently, you have an automobile, which is what it is in terms of setup, design, etc. However, you may also adjust what you can, including toe, camber, stiffness, weight distribution, weight balance, and aero balance, to see if you can somehow attempt to mimic the circumstances in terms of tyre wear.
And to ensure that we obtained a stronger overall connection, “we sought to model the tires in terms of simulation.”
All of those analyses finally led to the general conclusion that Ferrari’s SF21 setup, which was intended to protect the back tyres, was causing a significant amount of understeer.
“It is because you are sliding if you are wearing. That’s all there is to it “Binotto says. “And if you are sliding, the cause may be a straightforward setup.
“To have good rear stability, you may need to shield the back of the car, but doing so causes understeer at high or low speeds, and it was undoubtedly a mix of all of those things.
“But in the subsequent races, we sought to manoeuvre ourselves with more of a balance between oversteer and understeer. We made an effort to control the front tyres and slip less.
“I believe that any moves we took in that area to deal with tyre wear turned out to be the right ones.
In reality, we demonstrated that we were able to improve in front tyre battles during the most recent races in Austria, but also in Britain and in Hungary, where the issue doesn’t appear to be as pressing as it has been in France.