Max Verstappen snatched his second championship title last Sunday, while also bringing Red Bull close to their first Constructor’s Championship since 2013. Now, the rest of the teams will battle it out for the second and third places in the WDC in the remaining races. But it seems like Ferrari might be out of the running already.
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Currently, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez holds second place in the Driver’s standings, separated by only a point from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third place.
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It is no shock that Ferrari wants to push for second place in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships. And while they hold a 67-point lead over Mercedes in the Constructor’s standings, they might have a fight ahead of them to take over second place in the Driver’s standings.
In the midst of this comes the blow of the budget cap for this year. It appears that Ferrari has run out of its $140 million budget.
#F1: Ferrari and Mercedes didn’t bring any new parts to Asia. According to their own statement, both are close to the budget cap and can only make minor changes. Mercedes wants to launch a final upgrade in Austin.
— deni (@fiagirly) October 5, 2022
According to Motorsport, team principal, Mattia Binotto has confirmed that they will not be upgrading the F1-75 anymore this year, “The fund represents the latest development of this season.” (translated using Google)
The Scuderia has sacrificed the last “change” affordable under the budget cap. They will compete in the remaining four races of the season with the material that is available to the engineers directed by Enrico Cardile.
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With the budget cap cutting off its legs, will the prancing horse be able to compete with the other teams?
Ferrari might find it difficult to compete in future races
According to Mattia Binotto, Ferrari is looking towards the next season now instead of the current one. Having no room for more upgrades, it seems like the sensitive thing to do.
However, that might make it just that much harder to stay in the running for second place in the Driver’s championship. As the Japanese Grand Prix sufficiently proved, Red Bull has an arguably superior car.
Formula One F1 – Japanese Grand Prix – Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan – October 9, 2022 Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is interviewed after the race REUTERS/Issei Kato
Ferrari’s golden boy, Charles Leclerc, also agrees as he put his thoughts forward regarding the race:
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“Well, from lap five onwards to be honest, it was all downhill, really struggling with the tires,” he said. “We’ll keep pushing until the end. It’s obviously frustrating. The pace wasn’t quite there after four laps.”
According to the Monegasque, they need to be focusing on future races to improve and get to a better place.
“Now we need to use those last races in order to become a better team and hopefully, yeah, put up a bit more of a challenge next year.”
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WATCH THIS STORY: Understanding the Drama Behind Ferrari & Mercedes’ Budget Cap Battle Against Red Bull
But to what extent will that be possible now that the budget has run out? Hopefully, as Leclerc says optimistically, Ferrari will put up more of a challenge next season.
