Very few people, especially the tifosi expected this but Bahrain was a huge milestone for the Ferrari plan. Back in 2021, Mr. Binotto was very open about his ambition to create a competitive car for 2022 and despite the surprised tifosi, Bahrain win was surely in his mind.
We know how fast f1 evolves, when teams try to get as much information as possible from the strongest team in order to apply effective mods on their next races’ cars.
So we might think sidepods will soon be copied by at least a few, although that might not necessarily mean immediate improved performance. Ferrari seems a step ahead in development, as Mercedes was in 2014.
The big challenge now is keeping up that edge on the other teams and here a few reason why Ferrari might be able to succeed:
Tight schedule: with 23 events and a more stable calendar (compared to the last two years) races are running almost back to back, meaning that there is not enough time for teams to make changes to their cars on time, even if they access valuable information from Ferrari. For example, in July, there will be 4 races. We expect some major change to occur not before the end of Imola. If that is the case, Ferrari must capitalise on it while start playing their next cards.
2. Strong duo: The Carlitos (Charles and Carlos) have one year experience together and
they are both goal oriented to win driver championship and the constructors.
Now, this is what we fear could negatively impact the Ferrari plan: lack of focus and presumption.
We mean this with all the best of support and no disrespect for the Scuderia. However, since the Schumacher era of Jean Todt and Ross Brawn, Ferrari has shown major weaknesses in focus and consistency. We could see them winning one race or even two, but disappearing from the next one.
Playing the short game has never made winners. We don’t think it is the case of Mattia Binotto, however Ferrari should takes notes from the work of Redbull and Mercedes who keep their head down no matter what, leaving emotions out of the equation until they get the aimed result, which is winning every race.
We mean all this with good spirit as we want to see Ferrari fighting for the championship again. Consistency is key in F1, where damage limitation is also valuable for the championship.
Jeddah will be a confirmation of Ferrari’s pace so we will see whether Bahrain victory was circumstantial event or not.
Who do you think will win in Jeddah?