Verstappen 90, Perez 63, Russell 52, Sainz 49, Hamilton 41, Leclerc 22. These are not random numbers, but the result of a partial classification of the 2022 season, the one that emerges by adding up the points of the last four races.
It is an exercise for its own sake, which has the sole purpose of understanding the trend of a phase of the season that overturned the verdicts that emerged from the inaugural stage in Bahrain to that of Miami. The irrefutable figures do not reflect pure performance, but what each team has been able to collect in terms of speed, reliability and race strategies.
The picture that emerges penalizes the driver who had branded the start of the 2022 world championship, namely Leclerc, but the Monegasque has no responsibility in the collapse that began in Barcelona.
Indeed, Charles has confirmed an added value even in a tremendously difficult moment, collecting days that are anything but easy to accept (Monaco above all) without showing the slightest crack in terms of trust in the team. An added value is also the performance of the F1-75, a single-seater that in all race weekends (with the exception of Imola) has confirmed that it can aim for success.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
July will define Ferrari’s goals
The month of July, which offers four race weekends, will be the moment of truth for Ferrari. Before the summer break, the real objectives that the Scuderia can aspire to will emerge, those of the ‘world championships’ at the beginning of the season or those of reinforcement seen in the last two months.
In Maranello’s plans, 2022 was supposed to be the year of returning to the top, and so it was, but as is the law in the racing world, when there is the technical and human possibility to aim high, you have to try. Scoring two victories in the first three races raised the bar, and it shouldn’t be surprising that expectations quickly adjusted too.
For Ferrari there is the concrete possibility of starting the poker of summer races in the best way, aiming for success in the Silverstone stage. In the checklist of what it takes to aim for victory in England, Ferrari seems to be able to tick all the points: favorable track type, fresh engines and a driver, Leclerc, hungry for success after a period of forced fasting.
In Canada the F1-75 proved to be excellent in tire management, and the resolution of the new rear wing anticipated what will be the ‘Silverstone package’ of developments.
The unloaded rear wing of the Ferrari F1-75 designed for Silverstone which was anticipated in Canada
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Only one goal at Silverstone
The step that has been missing in the last four races is the ability to realize important technical potential in points, and this is where the game is played in Maranello. “We need the perfect weekend”, Mattia Binotto pointed out, and it’s true, because the very close comparison with Red Bull does not allow for mistakes.
Qualification, strategy, tire management, reliability, everything must be flawless, because in the event of errors, the bill is immediate. After the intense 2021 season, Red Bull is a team well-established in all its roles, and to bring them close to the possibility of error it is necessary to put them under pressure, eliminating the safety margins that can be granted when they believe they can afford them.
From this point of view, the Silverstone stage is an important step. Having unmarked the engine problem, which made Red Bull’s last two weekends downhill, Ferrari is called to only one result in Great Britain: to return to victory. It is understandable that there are no proclamations from the men of the Cavallino, but when the team leaves Maranello for Silverstone, there will probably be only one thought.
More than two months have passed since the last victory of Leclerc and the Scuderia, a long period in which the appointment with success was missed for many and different reasons. At Silverstone everything seems to be in the right place to try, without any anxiety related to the general classification, to be put in a drawer and resumed at the end of the Hungarian GP.
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