Despite the great variability of the current picture, the tests in Catalonia have provided the first indications of the goodness of the projects of the stables. Any consideration goes beyond the classifications of the times, since the petrol loads, the work programs carried out and the engine maps are not known, to which the difference in terms of compounds must be added. The best times of the two Mercedes, for example, were obtained with the C5 rubber, the softest of the entire Pirelli range, while Perez printed the best personal detection with the C4, against the C3 used by Verstappen, Leclerc and Sainz. The impressions on the general picture, on the other hand, rely more on the moods inside the paddock and above all on the observations on the track collected over the three days.
The news that emerges at the end of the three days in Barcelona is that Ferrari and McLaren are once again the center of attention. The Woking and Maranello teams were the real protagonists in Catalonia not in terms of better performance than the competition, but for the interest shown by Mercedes and Red Bull, convinced that the fight at the top could no longer be a question of two. In addition to the two undisputed protagonists of the last two years, in this start of 2022 it will therefore be important to keep the F1-75 and the MCL36 under observation. The Rossa seemed like a car that allows the drivers to get back on the gas very soon, with a stable rear in traction when not broken down by the curbs so far poorly digested by the car. Ferrari also appeared reactive in the changes of direction, like McLaren, both at high and low mileage. Mercedes for her part she gave the impression of being well balanced in the fastest corners of Montmelò where the aerodynamic qualities of the single-seaters emerge, while she appeared nervous at the rear in the third sector, especially during the first day. The situation then improved in the following days, demonstrating how the team is still studying the most effective arrangements to adopt. Red Bull on the contrary, it proved at ease in the tortuous third sector, without showing itself particularly in the faster sections. Behind Williams and AlphaTauri they give the impression of having a good base to work on, while Alpine, in addition to reliability problems, seems to have more road ahead to get to the levels of the best.
The picture that emerges is therefore that of a group of four teams to be monitored with particular attention: Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. The current context, however, represents nothing more than the starting point, from which an intense phase of aerodynamic and set-up development begins, in which the speed with which the individual teams will progress will determine the balance of power at the start of the championship. Much of this challenge will be played on the set-up front. The 2022 technical regulation, although born from aerodynamic intentions, has brought mechanics and set-up back to the center of technical discussions, placing it more prominently than in the past. Great importance is in fact attributed to the stabilization of the rolling and pitching movements of the car body, which affect the aerodynamic efficiency of the flat bottom and of the Venturi channels in the generation of load. The need to stabilize the aerodynamic platform also affected the geometry of the suspension, with a discreet differentiation in the grid between those who designed schemes to favor more the circulation of external flows and those who instead tried to reduce the amplitudes of the rolling and pitching movements of the chassis. It is therefore easy to understand why the teams are still looking for optimal stiffness in the calibration of the internal suspensions, able to guarantee the best compromise between dynamic behavior and efficiency of the aerodynamic platform.
On this front, McLaren and Ferrari are the single-seaters with the lowest ground clearance, thus requiring greater rigidity of the suspension group to counteract the greater risks of stalling the diffuser when cornering. Precisely because of this great stiffness, the F1-75 proved to be poorly digesting the roughness of the asphalt, bouncing more off the curbs of the last chicane and compromising the traction in approach of the final corner of the track. Red Bull, on the other hand, absorbs curbs better, a symptom of less rigidity in the adjustments which contributes to the better effectiveness of the RB18 in slower than in high-mileage corners. Furthermore, albeit at different levels, for all the teams there is the need to counter the phenomenon of porpoising. The vertical oscillation of the car at high speeds caused by the continuous detachment and reattachment of the fluid vein compromises stability in braking approach, with the risk of suffering a sudden loss of load in the fastest corners. As pointed out by Mattia Binotto, the problem will not be solving the problems, but succeeding through aerodynamic development and suspension calibration without excessively compromising the other aspects of performance. The challenge is further complicated by the great simplification of the internal suspensions imposed on the regulation, which has led to the ban on elements such as inert whose response was proportional to the vertical accelerations of the wheel group, a characteristic that would have been of great help for an oscillatory phenomenon such as porpoising.
Leaving aside the not yet well-defined power relationships, the 2022 fleet represents overall a real show from a technical point of view, with a great variety of aerodynamic, mechanical and other solutions that are less visible from the outside, but still surprising. The big question mark is whether such diversification will also correspond to a wider range of teams that are candidates for victory, since historically the two aspects have not always gone hand in hand.
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