2022 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[JPBD1990]

[JPower]

When I said my comment above, I don’t mean I’m concerned - I’m just not saying ‘Ferrari are going to win lots of races and fight for the championship’. Nobody knows that.

I'm not concerned either, I'm also on the side of tempering expectations. All I know performance wise so far is Sainz saying Ferrari's data doesn't show them to be the fastest car here like the media and Mercedes claim, but he doesn't say who is

I didn’t interpret his quote that way. I just think he means no one knows where they’re at right now and its useless to create a pecking order. Simple as that.

Nothing to do with the car’s performance relative to others.

[JPower]

Which lines up with Toto saying Ferrari has the strongest PU now. Knowing Toto and Mercedes, I find that difficult to believe but maybe at low power that might be the case.

Either way, I expect Ferrari to be at or near the front in regards to power this year. Definitely much closer than last year.

[jumpingfish]

What if the F1-75, as Lewis said, is really ahead of the rest by about 1 month of development and therefore they will not bring massive updates to Bahrain, because it was made in Barcelona where the circuit is suitable for testing aero and suspension? In those two weeks they can take a good look at the data and test race and qualifying performance in Bahrain while the rest of the teams deal with the big updates. Is such a scenario possible?

[Neuron]

If Ferrari was working almost whole 2021 on car for 2022, when Mercedes and RBR were involved on hard fightning each other, it's more like no-brainer that 2022 should be dominated by Italians. At least 30-60% of 2022 from the beginning. If I was Binotto and Ferrari will be not at absolutely top on the begginning of season I would be dewastated.

[LM10]

I really loved this, made me chuckle. Loving everything Binotto has done, particularly recently. If this car is a winner, I’ll be so happy for him disproving the haters, and of course for the team.

I am not ‘convinced’ as some others are that it will win or fight for the title. I’ve been there too many times before. But what’s encouraging is a) reliability, b) news of good driveability, and c) confirmation that they have been testing and not pushing for times despite always looking competitive. We live in hope, but at least for me, I don’t have high expectations or feelings of entitlement. Only time will tell.

Sainz agrees with you and so do I. Reading into the interviews from Charles (he never usually gives anything away), Sainz & Binotto it seems to me they don't think the car is a world beater but they also don't say where they think they are, so the pecking order and gap to the top are intriguing and still unknown

There's also that news that Mercedes and Red Bull (and McLaren) will bring big upgrades to Bahrain while Ferrari won't, I'm thinking/hoping it's because they're just studying the competition's solutions as of now and will bring their own updates in a few months

We've heard that the learning curve will be very steep with these cars so assuming the top 3/4 are really close right now, those update packages the other teams bring might give them a really sizeable advantage at the start of the year

I would love to see the quotes of what you interpreted like that. If you've followed Binotto in the last couple of years you should know that he likes to lower the expectations - even more so when there are other teams and media talking about your car looking best at the moment. What Binotto does is a no-brainer. Of course he's going to talk like that as he's trying put pressure on others and not themselves.

As for the upgrades, there is no reason to bring heavy upgrades if you already have a decent package now. Every team has different upgrade programmes. Ferrari has already started the development and work on the upgrades for the coming months.

Btw., I really don't understand your pessimism all the time. It's almost like you cherry-pick articles or parts from articles and interpret it the most negative way possible.
For example, you were concerned because you misinterpreted Turrini's article in which he was philosophizing about the possibility of Ferrari being half a second behind Mercedes and RBR even before the cars were presented.

I'm not trying to sound rude or anything like that, but I must admit that it's kind of tiring and spreads negativity to read pessimistic stuff most of the time while there is not even a reason for that. Totally to the contrary of that, we must be glad that Ferrari is looking pretty decent for now.

I think it must be a Tifosi-thing to be suspicious and concerned. So come on, let's relax a bit.

[f1316]

I’m more encouraged to hear this from Alonso than the Mercedes drivers though as it’s the typical Mercedes trope to hype up other teams in order to claim a larger victory when you win - Fernando on the other hand likely doesn’t have this incentive.

I think the key is whether this remains the case. As has been said, it seems likely that other teams will bring larger update packages (“new car” is an overstatement since it’ll be the same chassis etc) - this tallies with Ferrari being “ahead” in their development schedule in that they turned up to Barcelona with something more akin to their race 1 package.

That said, I do interpret binnotto’s comments to not disclude things like new wings and floor - they will have learned things from the first test that they’ll be keen to work on and optimise. There just won’t be an entirely revamped package (circa Mercedes in 2019) which I think we can expect from the silver cars and the Red Bulls.

[falonso81]

I believe most if not all teams will bring a modified floor to Bahrain, so they can deal with porpoising. About other upgrades, i will not be surprised if Merc or Red Bull save them until Friday practice.

[shamyakovic]

Any news on updates for next testing?

[JPower]

Any news on updates for next testing?

Not really. Binotto said the car will largely be the same at Test 2. They just want to understand the car more. I’d expect a more elegant floor solution for porpoising and that’s about it.

[wowgr8]

Wolff's words hold no weight to me but Marko claiming Ferrari have joined that top group is a big deal. I've been burned too many times underestimating Mercedes so I expect them to find seas of pace and be quickest in Bahrain but this is still positive to hear

As for the engine it's too soon to draw any conclusions

[Schippke]

To be fair, anything that comes from Toto's/Helmut's mouth regarding pace and pecking order I pay little attention to. Ferrari might very well be up there now power wise, but if it is widely reported that Red Bull and Mercedes are bringing heavily updated cars to Bahrain, then the pecking order is even harder to decipher at the top.

Something telling was the speed trap numbers, where most of the Ferrari powered cars (ok, the ones that were running consistently, which basically leaves Ferrari!) were quite high top speed wise, compared to the rest of the competition. Could've just been for a few laps, but could also potentially be Honda (or what they prefer to be called) and Mercedes running more conservatively vs. Ferrari.

[wowgr8]

I agree when it comes to power, first of all, all the Ferrari powered teams were running spoon wings, so that would flatter them on the speed traps, secondly mappings are a big variable. Only in Bahrain qualifying will all the chips be down, until then I disregard all the engine talk

What he said about overall performance though holds some weight because in the off season and last year he was saying that it would just be Mercedes and Red Bull up front again, so to go from that to adding Ferrari to that group counts for something even if it counts for little, like you said they'll be bringing upgrades next week then we'll see where everyone stands

[LM10]

I totally agree with you guys.

I think Ferrari powered teams were on qualifying mode already and had the Monza spec rear wing mounted altogether in the testing - to compensate for the massive lack of power they have.

Thinking of Bahrain I’m filled with horror and expecting horrible things coming towards Ferrari!

[JPower]

I totally agree with you guys.

I think Ferrari powered teams were on qualifying mode already and had the Monza spec rear wing mounted altogether in the testing - to compensate for the massive lack of power they have.

Thinking of Bahrain I’m filled with horror and expecting horrible things coming towards Ferrari!

I haven't seen the car run in anger but I already know everyone was sandbagging but Ferrari. I could hear "Good warmup on the brakes. Track is clear. Mode PUSH" from my secret stream. We're running spoon wings around one of the highest downforce tracks on the calendar! We're already behind! Binotto Out!