Spa-Francorchamps was a nightmare for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz’s third place made the Belgian GP weekend less bitter, even if the Spaniard’s 27 seconds behind Max Verstappen are witness to a redhead who, as they say in football, has never been in the game.
In Maranello they will never admit it, not even under torture, but the F1-75 has lost competitiveness because the car was raised off the ground to comply with the new FIA rules. Let’s clarify: the cars were all more or less high, but there are those who paid for this change in a much heavier way than their rivals.
Red Bull Spacial also had to revise the aerodynamic map, but the RB18 lost much less load than the competition, being a less pitch sensitive car than Ferrari and the difference seen in Belgium became abysmal already in qualifying when super -Max has trimmed over six tenths to Sainz.
Leclerc’s Ferrari F1-75 skates at Eau Rouge
Photo by: Erik Junius
The Cavallino simulation promised a competitive Ferrari that has never been seen: from the first free practice session it was clear that to be in place in Blanchimont’s jumps (but there were also two other “difficult” points) it was necessary to raise the bottom, losing load, much more than what he had prepared.
For the first time in the 2022 season, their homework was badly done and the team on the track then messed around trying to fix it. In Belgium we saw a Cavallino… crippled, but the true potential of the redhead is not that of Spa-Francorchamps.
Being able to count on a certain downforce, the aerodynamics had prepared a very low rear wing in the wind tunnel that should have allowed Ferrari to rival the Red Bulls even in the two fast sections (T1 and T3).
Ferrari F1-75: above the flat wing rejected at Spa and, below that of Baku slightly revised
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The reality of the track revealed, however, that the flat main profile was a luxury that the Ferrari drivers could not afford, because the F1-75 had no downforce even in T2, the driven section where the traction and acceleration qualities have always allowed the red to excel.
If the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull in the race remained the usual one of half a minute, the position of Ferrari has changed: from challenger to Red Bull to defend itself from the silver arrow preceded by just a few seconds. It is in this “photograph” that it emerges how much the Scuderia was out of place, in an event that caught it unprepared for the first time.
Was it an episode, or did the Cavallino go downhill? The doubts we had expressed after qualifying were confirmed: the rise in temperatures was not enough to change the situation (on the asphalt on Sunday there were 15 degrees more than in qualifying), because Ferrari had no grip, for the lack of downforce, so it slipped causing the tires to overheat. Nothing to do with the single-seater that until two GPs ago was considered the state of the art of the Circus.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, third place, with the Spa trophy
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Sainz worked a miracle by managing to get on the podium, while Leclerc had to surrender to the now proverbial bad luck: they all happen to him. The Monegasque had to deal with a fire in the brake of the right front wheel, after a tear-off by Verstappen occluded the cooling outlet. Charles drove the whole race with a bad car with a piece of carbon rubbing against the rim and at any moment it could have caused him to retire.
Mattia Binotto made no secret of believing that in Holland the situation will be different from Spa, but the Scuderia has put together two flops one in a row (Hungary and Belgium). He must demonstrate that he knows how to react: in Zandvoort we will see some modifications to the bottom (some more air vents on the pavement and something different in the diffuser?) To restore those heights that allow the F1-75 to express the high load it is capable of. to produce with the car body.
Ferrari F1-75: here is the bottom seen from below
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
The Dutch one is a track where aerodynamic efficiency (Red Bull) matters less than downforce (Ferrari) and on paper the track near the sand dunes should better suit the red than the host’s Milton Keynes car, albeit often the forecasts on the eve turned out to be wrong.
In Maranello they are confident of dismissing Spa-Francorchamps as a (serious) error in the route and, to warm up the Ferrari people who have bought tickets en masse to be in Monza, a competitive Ferrari is expected and anything but decommissioned afterwards. to be out of the fight for the world championship.
The Belgian was such an ugly red that it didn’t even show what the leap in quality of the new hybrid mounted on Leclerc’s 066/7 could be: an element that we hope to discover already in Holland but that should be precious in the “temple of speed. “.
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