La Ferrari comes from two hits in a row enemy territory. These two victories, a Silverstone and Austria, they not only broke the domain Red Bull which lasted from the distant Grand Prix of Imola. But above all they have highlighted a significant step forward for the Reds that since Canada has introduced, among various small updates, important element, which brought it closer to the top speed of the Austrian team.
The fight against updates
Ferraris and Red Bulls they have two different cars ed extremely competitive, but each at the beginning of the season lacked something. Red Bull from the beginning have had to refurbish over and over again by bringing updates to make the RB18 more efficient especially in the more driven sections. There Ferrari on the other hand, it immediately proved to have excellent traction and to do well in slow corners, while he suffered on the straights. Both of them taught each other, up to a version that sees them very similar in values. Red Bull was inspired by the bottom of the F1-75, while Ferrari by the rear wing of the RB18 to recover on one of the strongest points exhibited up to now by the cars born from the mind of Adrian Newey: the top speed.
A new wing
"Red Bull gives you wings" says the motto of the famous soft drink brand. And actually what Ferrari brought to Canada for Charles Leclerc was a wing design inspired by the super effective one of the RB18 that, in the opening of DRS (Drag Reduction System) he was able to gain a lot of speed while not sacrificing downforce. The new rear wing della Rossa, designed to reduce drag and, above all, to be more effective once the DRS is opened, after being tested on Charles it was also tested on the car of Sainz starting with the Silverstone GP, competition won just from Spanish.
With the second consecutive victory, this time captured by Charles, we can say that the work done by the men and women of Maranello at the moment seems to have paid. In fact, the team has further reduced the performance gap with Red Bull which in standings he is still ahead by 56 points. “We were at a disadvantage to Red Bull in terms of straight-line speed, without a doubt. Especially in areas where DRS could be used. So in terms of horsepower about their DRS versus ours. We have worked a lot on this aspect" said the Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia binotto after the race in Austria.
"Our work can be seen in the new rear wing which we introduced for the first time only on one single-seater, that of Leclerc in Canada. Then we mounted it on both cars starting from the British Grand Prix and I think that from this point of view we have reduced the gap in terms of top speed from Red Bull ”.
Reliability dilemma
At Ferrari, however, there is still a lot of work to be done in optics reliability, given that everyone, including the customer teams, is at, if not beyond, the elements allowed by the regulation. Unfortunately, the balance sheet is still too unsatisfactory and the recent training camp of Sainz, forced to park his F1-75 on a slope, while the flames enveloped him, underlined the urgency of the matter. To solve certain problems it will take time, but at the same time quick solutions to avoid finishing the races with only one car, or worse still zero. Precisely for this a Spa and Monza should debut a hybrid upgrade. In the meantime, there are still doubts about the penalties that Sainz will have to serve in the next Grands Prix, considering that he only has Power Unit number 3 available in his fleet, and that in France there would be room for a comeback.
Source statements: Motorsport.com Italy
