Ferrari started the critical phase of the season before the vacation break with two important victories. But the taste after England and Austria is still bittersweet. That's because the team is struggling in the pit-wall and has its Achilles heel in reliability.
After its stellar performance at the Australian GP back in April, Ferrari entered a seemingly endless spiral of errors and problems. So much so that it took seven races to get back to winning ways in Formula One - the two victories at the beginning of July have put the Italian team back in contention, but still in a reticent way. Although it showed strength at the Red Bull Ring with Charles Leclerc's triumph, the celebration cannot be complete. The feeling is that the Italians let slip another chance to turn the game around, it was a kind of 'draw' at the opponent's home. Carlos Sainz's break, when he was already approaching a possible second place, was painful and allowed the taurine rival to lose little in a home defeat scenario.
And this is because the squad has essential edges to be trimmed, despite the evolution made in different parts of F1-75. Even though Ferrari has made flawed pit-wall decisions, as it happened in Monaco and England, for example, where the strategists prevented Leclerc from winning, the pit-walls due to mechanical problems were more costly throughout this first part of the season. It is also a matter of concern to understand that this damage has been more to the power unit - it is true that the Italians have over-invested in the engines to cope with Red Bull's higher straight-line speed and have succeeded, but it is equally true to say that this has taken its toll, all the more so at a time when parts development is frozen. The good news is that the regulations allow for changes to improve reliability, and this is what the engineers at Maranello are working on.
The case is that Leclerc and Sainz have already been forced to leave races due to engine problems twice each in 2022. The Monegasque dropped out in Spain and Azerbaijan. The Spaniard also dropped out in Baku and, more recently, in Austria. On each of these occasions, Red Bull won. The Taurinos have their headaches too, but they were able to capitalize more on the failures of their Italian rivals.
One example: when he left the Bahrain and Australia GPs with problems, Verstappen didn't figure at the top and didn't even have a real chance of winning. Now, in the Ferrari scenario, Leclerc was leading the Spanish and Azeri stages. And at least in Barcelona, he repeated the dominance he had shown in Australia.
As a result, the Driver's World Championship shows Verstappen with 208 points against Leclerc's 170, but if you consider the retirements, the Monegasque could be closer or even ahead of the Dutchman. The same goes for the Constructors' World Championship. "Ferrari could very well have done a double here," poked Red Bull boss Christian Horner after the defeat to the Reds in Austria. "And still on that, it was a successful case for us in limiting the damage."
By and large, this is how the championship plays out, with Red Bull taking advantage of their opponent's woes. It is fair to say, however, that the Austrians continue to do a solid job, especially where the world champion is concerned.
And since every misfortune is a misfortune, Ferrari is once again facing a dilemma. It is understood that Sainz's blown engine at the Red Bull Ring faced the same failure that afflicted Leclerc's unit at the Azerbaijan GP - soon after, already in Canada, the Italians opted for a complete change to the fourth version, which led to a punishment. Perhaps the same will happen now with the Madrid man. "It is possible that the defect is the same as Leclerc's engine in Baku. In Austria we could have scored another double and we didn't. This is proof that we are still not safe from reliability problems, we have to work on that even more. Now we will analyze what happened with Carlos and try to understand in order to find short-term solutions," said boss Mattia Binotto.
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Yes, that's it. Ferrari needs fast solutions because it has in its hands a very fast car that can already match the strengths of the competition, with an important ally: the great tire management. This aspect was fundamental in last Sunday's victory. So, at the same time that it has a rocket in the garages, Ferrari celebrates and fears for the worst: "As far as the engine is concerned, we are facing some reliability problems, it's just a frozen engine for the next seasons, but we can fix the reliability. In the last few months, we put a lot of pressure on performance. It's a concern," the manager explained.
"I have no desire to point the finger at anyone, quite the opposite. We're going to work to improve reliability, and I think we've already managed to do some of that. Often there are no solutions on the engine that can be found in a few days. There are parts to be modified, redesigned, produced and homologated. It's a long process. But we have an excellent base also for the next seasons, and that is very important," he added.
In fact, Ferrari has all the elements, but is racing against time.
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