At least 5 races before drawing conclusions: this was the response given at the beginning of the season by Mattia binotto. It took very little, however, to understand the goodness of this F1-75, born after years of hard work and hopes. There Ferrari arrives at Barcelona from first in the standings but called to answer with the Red Bull perilously close after landslide victories at Imola e Miami where Max Verstappen narrowed the gap by 46 points from Leclerc.
“When you consider how many points we're bringing home from here (Miami), we can't be too disappointed, as we lead both championships, but it's clear that now we have to answer" he said binotto at the end of Miami Grand Prix.
But how much can the long-awaited update package in Barcelona be worth?
Ferrari's problem is not speed
Surely, one of the aspects that worried the most was the difficulty of managing the front tyres. Already after the first laps, the average mounted by Leclerc he began to give in, giving the Monegasque back a car that was difficult to drive, surprisingly, in the stretches where it has always been praised, i.e. the slow ones. Against the Red Bull she managed to find perfection in every phase of the race, leading both in the fast and slow sections. Red Bull e Ferrari are not far off in terms of top speeds, while one of the strong points of the RB18 di Adrian Newey is its aerodynamic efficiency.
A new fund for Barcelona
A point that the Ferrari aims to solve a Barcelona, crossroads of the season, with the introduction of a bottom with runners placed diagonally to the side of the Venturi channels, a novelty inspired by the Red Bull. There Ferrari moreover it would also bring other innovations that should bring the F1-75 to lose a few extra pounds, which the Red Bull has already done a Imola where she is presented with 4 kg in less.
La Red Bull, at the moment, in fact enjoys a more complete package than the Red, even if now we are getting closer to Barcelona, track with more load, usable better by Ferrari.
"Red Bull he has improved his car with improvements since the beginning of the season and if I look at the last two races they were two tenths a lap faster than us", he said in the post Miami, the Team Principal of the Ferrari, Mattia binotto.
"The most important problem for the F1-75 in comparison with the RB18 it was the degradation of the medium compound tyres – writes Paolo Filisetti, in the Gazzetta dello Sport – an effect of the reduced grip induced by the aerodynamic load generated by the underbody of the car. The decision to adopt unloaded wings on this track has highlighted how Ferrari, in this respect, is decidedly less effective than the RedBull. A weakness that could be fixed with the debut of the new fund expected for Barcelona, eliminating the efficiency gap that separates the two single-seaters”.
The doubtful Budget Cap
In the longest season in the history of Formula 1, Mattia binotto also points out an aspect that affects development so much, that of Budget Cap, set at 140 million. According to the Team Principal of the Ferrari, Red Bull in fact, he would have already spent a lot with the latest updates. “Now it's our turn to develop, I expect a slowdown on the part of Red Bull, they cannot keep up this pace, at least not at the budget cap level“.
"We always monitor the innovations that Red Bull brings to each race – the words of Mattia binotto - and we therefore know how much they have already changed. Making an estimate, to date, they have spent much more than us".
"We don't have the money to spend on updates at every single race, not due to incapacity, but due to budget constraints. So we have to sort of try to focus development on when we feel it's the right time to do it." concludes Mattia binotto.
Appointment then in two weeks, a Barcelona, where the track will give us further answers.
Source: Formula Passion
