- After the 2020 campaign, the worst in four decades, 2021 was a step in the right direction for Ferrari.
- In 2021 Ferrari took third place in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship with 323.5 points, thus achieving several of its previous season goals and laying the foundation stone at the same time.
- Ferrari, with its driver line-up, history and resources, is certainly best placed to challenge its first title since 2008.
With 16 world championship titles and 238 victories, Ferrari is the most successful team in Formula 1.
In this context, third place in the constructors’ championship in 2021 with 323.5 points and a modest five podium places is not exactly convincing. But after the 2020 campaign, the worst in four decades, 2021 was a step in the right direction.
In 2020 Ferrari crashed to sixth place, scoring just 131 points with the finger pointing to its weak powerplant after reaching a private settlement with the FIA on alleged but never proven performance differences on its 2019 engine.
In 2021, Ferrari achieved several of its preseason goals while laying long-term foundations in a year of transition. It won no race and extended its drought to 45 races – the longest since the early / mid-1990s – but there were tangible gains.
Carlos Saenz finished fifth in the F1 drivers’ championship in 2021.
Mark ThompsonGetty Images
Charles Leclerc took two poles and a podium while the newly recruited Carlos Sainz, who replaced four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, fitted the team like a glove, took four podiums and finished every race. A highly competitive season ended 164.5 to 159 in favor of Sainz, although Leclerc was 14-6 ahead in the races in which both were classified.
“In 2020 the average deficit in qualifying was 1.3 seconds per lap to Mercedes,” said Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto. “In 2021 it was an average of 0.6 seconds. We know we haven’t closed the gap with the best, and 0.6 is clearly a large number, but realistically it was impossible to fill the gap (during the off season). If we look at the race itself, it was 1.1 seconds (one lap) on Mercedes in 2020, it has become 0.8, so still a considerable gap. ”
But progress nonetheless, especially given the fact that Ferrari’s SF21 car was not upgraded, resources were instead poured into the 2022 program.
Knowing that 2021 was a year of transition with limited chassis and engine profits, Ferrari urged it to continue the restructuring and organizational changes that began in late 2020.
Charles Leclerc finished seventh in the F1 drivers’ championship in 2021.
Peter FoxGetty Images
“If I look at our season delta average for McLaren, it’s only 0.05 seconds between us and McLaren (during qualifying), but if we ended up getting almost 50 points more than them, it’s because that we were more solid. “than them,” said Binotto.
“We didn’t just finish the race twice – Charles, in Monte Carlo and Hungary (due to accident damage). Only McLaren did as well as we did. Last year it was six (retired). In terms of the number of races that ended in the top 10, we finished 38 times with two drivers, which is the best of all teams. Our average pit stop time in 2021 was 2.55 seconds instead of 2.70 seconds in 2020, and 73% of our pit stops this year were under three seconds, compared to 38% in 2020. So these figures again show encouraging progress.
“We’re not the best yet, but I think we as a team are certainly trying to improve in all areas that were achieved in these numbers.”
Binotto, who has been team leader for three years, has gradually implemented cultural changes, above all to “take mistakes as opportunities”, to learn, and that, in contrast to earlier epochs, “there is no blame and no pointing of the finger”.
“We have a shared responsibility for the team that achieves a goal together, it is not a sum of individuals, it is our responsibility as a team,” he says.
“There is still a gap with the best, but the gap is getting smaller …”
Part of Ferrari’s take on third place was made easier with the introduction of a new hybrid system. It was slated for 2022, but after deciding to accelerate its rollout by late 2021, it was ready in September and gave it an eight-race test run. The powerplant has been a major weakness since that controversial private deal in early 2020, and advances in this area are critical to Ferrari’s long-term prospects given the impending freeze through 2024.
“It was a significant change, not just in terms of design, but also in terms of manufacture and use,” said Binotto. “The development of the hybrid PU was important to us; We took a big step compared to what we had when we consider that the PU was a huge disadvantage last year in terms of the difference in performance, which was very evident on the straight. There is still a gap with the best, but the gap is getting smaller and when I look at what we have done with regard to 2022, I am sure that we will continue to make improvements.
Mattia Binotto ends his third season and gives the shots at Ferrari.
JIM WATSONGetty Images
“The rest (of the engine), especially on the internal combustion engine, is significantly different (in 2022). We have a new fuel (according to the regulations), namely 10% ethanol, which has greatly changed the way it burns. Only when you consider the different fuel types do we lose more or less 20 hp, which means that the combustion itself is quite different. So there were many possibilities in the development of the engine and we have changed it a lot, especially in the design of the combustion itself. “
The unit and its structure naturally run parallel to the design of the rest of the car. The unnamed car of next year, which will be presented in mid-February, will differ radically from the SF21 and its predecessors in view of the revision of the regulations.
“What can we innovate with the chassis?” Asks Binnotto. “I think we were very open-minded about the exercise and what was or wasn’t possible with the car concept – and that’s not just the outer shapes.” But whatever you mean by the body in terms of layout, chassis design, architecture, including the drive architecture could have done – I think the team made significant innovations and the overall design that we are now formalizing is very different from the 2021 project. “
Ferrari continues with Leclerc and Sainz for 2022. Leclerc, developed by the Ferrari Academy, will be under contract until 2024, while talks are due to start with Sainz in the winter to keep him committed beyond 2022. Binotto regularly praises the duo as the best of the Formula 1 driver line-up and they complement each other well.
Ferrari also has protégé Mick Schumacher for a second season at Haas; From 2022 he will share the duties of reserve driver with Antonio Giovinazzi, the former Alfa Romeo racing driver who has been with Ferrari since 2017. Giovinazzi becomes reserve driver at 12 events and Schumacher 11.
Ferrari isn’t the only team viewing 2022 as an opportunity, but with third place and with its driver line-up, history and resources – its recently built driver-in-loop simulator will be fully completed in early 2022 – it certainly is best placed to challenge his first title since 2008.
Binotto, on the other hand, continues to adopt a cautious but progressive tone.
“The 2022 car project is going according to plan,” says Binotto. “We know that we don’t have any references to the others, that’s the hardest part, we don’t have any rumors about what is happening to the others, but it is important for me to know that we are achieving our goals and that it is going according to plan. We know that regulation change is a great discontinuity (from the past) and an opportunity too.
“It is important for us to continue growing next year. And it should further reduce the gap to the competition. The new regulations are a clear opportunity. The hope is to be competitive and to be competitive for me means winning races. Would that mean we can fight for a championship?
“When I look at myself today, the gap is still big. But as a Ferrari, he’s part of our DNA. The important thing is to be able to fight for pole and victory in at least a few races. Continuous growth and improvement. I would be disappointed if we hadn’t improved on this year. ”
This content is created and maintained by a third party and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may find more information on this and similar content at piano.io
