F1 pundit Michael Schmidt believes that while the drivers might be able to push the F1-75 to a pole position, Ferrari don’t have the potential to win anymore in the 2022 season.
The Scuderia kicked off the season with strong results in the first few races. However, they’ve had a visible performance and pace deficit to Red Bull for the majority of the season. Even though Charles Leclerc started the race in Monza from pole, he simply didn’t have the pace to hold off or challenge the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. Schmidt believes this has to do with the car’s high tire degradation.
In his article for Auto Motor und Sport, Schmidt wrote:
“Ferrari can’t win anymore. It’s still enough for pole position but no longer for victory. The speed in the F1-75 is still there, but over the distance the red car eats its tires.”
Explaining the engineers’ perspectives on what might be going wrong for Ferrari this season, he added:
“The Ferrari engineers rather suspect the aerodynamics. That the search for more downforce has reduced the working window and thus the scope for vehicle set-up. That’s why Carlos Sainz drove a test with an old underbody in free practice.”
Ferrari boss explains that the booing in Monza was directed towards the FIA and not Max Verstappen
For the first time in his career, Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix last weekend. However, the Tifosi were reportedly booing the Dutchman.
Nonetheless, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto claimed that the reaction was directed towards the FIA. The race directorship denied fans an exciting last few laps by not restarting the race after the safety car.
As quoted by f1i.com, the Italian said:
“Booing a driver is never great, especially Max, the fastest driver on track and a deserving winner, it’s not good. The booing from our tifosi was more towards the FIA, and simply by booing the winner, it was trying to boo the FIA. The tifosi out there believed the Safety Car could have ended and [we could] have had a couple of laps for the show today, for the battles on track.” Huge boos for Verstappen as he’s announced on the podium #F1 #ItalianGPHuge boos for Verstappen as he’s announced on the podium #F1 #ItalianGP
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also admitted that the team would have preferred to see the race restart. He was confident that Max Verstappen would maintain his lead and win the race fairly. In a post-race media interaction, the Briton said:
“We don’t want to win a race under a safety car. It’s something we’ve talked about for many many years, that they should finish racing. There was enough time to get that race going.” “We had the faster car, we would have liked to win the race on the track, not behind the Safety Car.”
Verstappen currently leads the championship and could mathematically win the title at the upcoming Singapore GP.
What’s your favorite race of the 2022 season so far? Tell us in the comments below..
Edited by nicolaas.ackermann12
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