Disastrous race weekends for Ferrari have seemingly become the ‘new normal’. The Hungarian Grand Prix was the latest example, as Charles Leclerc was once again left defending his team’s questionable tactics during the race on Sunday.
Having started third on the grid behind team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, Leclerc settled in well on his medium tyres and jumped his team mate when they made their first pit stops. Next he swept past George Russell, who had started on pole, for the lead of the race.But disaster struck when Ferrari brought Leclerc in for a second time to fit a set of hard tyres. This was a reaction to his championship rival Max Verstappen’s stop and put Leclerc on a tyre they had not run all weekend.
In the unexpectedly cool conditions, Leclerc couldn’t generate enough heat in the tyre, and Verstappen breezed past. Forced to make a third stop for softs, Leclerc had to settle for sixth place, throwing away more precious points in his increasingly doomed championship fight against Verstappen – who won the race despite starting all the way down in tenth.
Speaking after the race, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto defended their strategy. “When we fitted the hard, our simulation was that it could have been a difficult couple of laps of warm-up, slower than the medium for 10-11 laps, and then it would have come back and been faster by the end of the stint – and it was a 30-lap stint,” he explained.
Ferrari’s expectation the tyre would come in later in the stint proved incorrect, and Leclerc paid the price. Binotto also insisted the car’s performance had not been up to its usual level, describing Hungary as the first race all year Ferrari weren’t quick enough to win.
Unfortunately for Ferrari, errors such as these have been a running theme. And it’s not just their questionable tactical calls which have left Red Bull running away with the title, but driving mistakes and unreliability too.
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Ferrari made a positive start to the season. Three races in, Leclerc had two wins and a second place, propelling him into a healthy championship lead. Their first costly setback in the drivers’ title battle came at Imola, when Leclerc spun while running third. He finished sixth and dropped seven points to race winner Verstappen.
That was followed up by a retirement in Spain due to an engine failure while Leclerc was leading the race. Again, Verstappen bagged the 25 points, and with it the championship lead.
A wet Monaco Grand Prix saw a strategy error from the team when they switched from the wets too early and had a botched double-stacked pitstop which cost both drivers time. While Sergio Perez won, Leclerc lost more ground to third-placed Verstappen.
Both Ferraris retired in Baku after another engine failure for Leclerc – again, while he was leading – and Sainz suffering a hydraulic problem. Verstappen won.
Leclerc suffered the hangover from that race in Canada, where engine change penalties confined him to the back of the grid. He finished fifth while Sainz unsuccessfully pursued winner Verstappen.
The British Grand saw success for Sainz, who won the race ahead of Perez, but Leclerc, who had initially taken the lead, was left fourth after Ferrari opted not to pit him under a late Safety Car. As a result, he only took six points off Verstappen when it could – and perhaps should – have been much more.
While much of the blame for Leclerc’s woes up to this point lay with the team, that wasn’t the case in France. Having seen off an early attack from Verstappen, Leclerc lost the back end of the Ferrari and spun into the barriers.
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Speaking after the race, now 63 points behind his rival, the dejected Leclerc claimed he didn’t deserve the championship with mistakes like that.
“I feel like I’m performing at probably the highest level of my career since the beginning of the season,” he said. “But there’s no point of performing at a very high level if then I do those mistakes.
“At the end of the year we will count back and if there are 32 points missing then I know it’s coming from me and I did not deserve to win the championship. But for the second half of the season I need to get on top of those things if I want to be a world championship.”
A penalty for an unsafe release confined Sainz to fifth. Piling error upon error, his race engineer initially described his sanction as a much more serious “stop and go penalty” – the driver swiftly put him right.
Any hopes Ferrari would go into the summer break on a high were dashed at the Hungaroring, where second and third on the grid translated into fourth and sixth at the flag. Many were baffled by Ferrari’s decision to put Leclerc on the hard tyre after Verstappen pitted.
That included the driver himself. “I said that I wanted medium as long as possible,” he told media including RaceFans after the race. “We need to understand why we went on the hard because I made it clear that medium, I wanted to keep it as long as possible but we pitted very early for the hard.
“But then on the hard obviously we lost all the pace. We did one stop more than everybody, losing 20 seconds, plus the five or six laps on the hard we were losing a second per lap, so this is a lot of race time.”
Perez however did have sympathy for his rival team after the errors at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
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”I think always, after the race, it’s very easy to point [the] finger and say, ‘What a mistake they’ve [made]’,” Perez said when asked by RaceFans. “But in the heat of the moment, we are all prone to make those mistakes. We live in such tiny margins that these things can happen.”
But errors of one type or another are happening far too frequently at Ferrari. Leclerc still believes the team can win championships, but admits they need to make further improvements to how they perform as a team.
“Looking where we are coming from in the last two years, I do believe that it’s an incredible step forward,” he said.
“On the other hand, obviously, there’s another step that we need to do and we are working on that, but I’m confident that we will do it.”
Ferrari, Formula 1’s longest continually-running team, is undoubtedly capable of winning championships. They have won the constructors’ championship 16 times, while 15 drivers’ titles have been won in their cars.
Yet it would be no exaggeration to say they are throwing away the 2022 chmapionship to Red Bull. Frustratingly for the team, Verstappen has taken 126 points out of Leclerc in 10 races.
Ferrari’s 2022 season is a demonstration that building a race-winning car is not enough to guarantee a championship. Over those 10 races reliability problems, driver errors and tactical mistakes have all-but assured they will have to wait another year to end a championship drought which stretches back to 2008.
The summer break will bring some much-needed respite. Ferrari need to come to terms with the mistakes which have been made, come back from it stronger and start delivering on their obvious championship-winning potential.
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Gmacz
4th August 2022, 11:59
It was ever thus in my long view of F1. Quite apart from the Schumacher/Brawn/Todt era, and at least 2 of those components were exceptional talents, Ferrari have always been dogged by poor management and arguably Ruebens Barrichelo might agree even when RB was trackside in red overalls.
I honestly don’t see it changing in my lifetime and I feel terribly for the Tifosi. Painful.
BasCB (@bascb)
4th August 2022, 12:03
Yes, Ferrari have a long tradition of doing this by now.
miciek (@micio)
4th August 2022, 12:14
Totally agree. I think you need a cold-headed and knowledgeable people at the helm, not brand fanatics.
And Ferrari is a brand fanaticism magnet. It won’t change.
MichaelN
4th August 2022, 13:32
The graph is quite telling. It’s not so much that Ferrari ‘lost’ but that Red Bull had a very bad first few races, reliability wise. After that, Leclerc loses points at a pretty linear pace. The team just isn’t good enough to compete.
JackL
4th August 2022, 18:03
Its sadly been a cultural issue within Ferrari. The only exception was those golden years with Todt/Schumi/Brawn when they were able to change the culture within Ferrari enough to win. Since they left, its reverted back to itself.
I think their best bet is to switch focus to next years car (essentially repeat 2020). Let Merc take the fight to red bull. They can fall to third in the championship. It will give them an extra boost over RB next year when they have more development/CFD/Windtunnel time. In the meantime, they can hone their strategy and operations to maximize each opportunity, but it will take the pressure off themselves, and crucially, they might be able to fix these issues without the stress of a championship.
some racing fan
4th August 2022, 22:59
Another season similar to what Ferrari had was in 1985. Their car that year, the 156/85 was among the fastest, most reliable and most competitive cars among at least 5 or 6 competitive makes of cars that season- and Michele Alboreto had a real shot of winning the WDC that year. However, after Alboreto won the German GP that year the Ferrari for some reason was never competitive again from the subsequent race onwards. The car was way down the grid and it broke on Alboreto in all but 2 of the remaining races. To make his point clear, at the European GP at Brands Hatch Alboreto drove his car whilst it was on fire to the Ferrari pit, to make a point that Ferrari threw away the championship to McLaren and Alain Prost.
some racing fan
4th August 2022, 23:00
*similar to what has been happening this year with Ferrari
Adam (@rocketpanda)
4th August 2022, 12:20
I’ve always thought Ferrari’s biggest problem in winning a title was Ferrari – their problem has never been the drivers or the car. I’ve seen them make baffling choices, lazy strategy and glacial reaction times with Alonso, Vettel & Raikkonen and now with Leclerc & Sainz. This year it’s arguable their car is the best on the grid, it’s almost unfathomable that they’re this far behind already. But it’s not over – I still think they’re in with a shot. Luck changes quickly.
Though they have to get on top of their operational issues. Their strategies are woeful, they don’t have the development of Mercedes or the tactical nous of Red Bull. Also, really if you had drivers like Alonso, Vettel & Raikkonen – 7 world championships between them in your cars and you still failed to take a title that speaks volumes alone.
miciek (@micio)
4th August 2022, 12:23
Maybe Leclerc & Sainz are not that good as people think? That would mean Ferrari car is the best on the grid by far.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
4th August 2022, 17:37
I think they’re even better than most people think, this season (filled with strategy mishaps, 3 botched races for Leclerc, Sainz’s constant questioning of strategy and pleads against bad decisions) proves it.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2022, 21:25
Leclerc speed wise is as good as verstappen and has been since his first season in f1, he still makes some mistakes but not as many as vettel in 2018. Sainz is an ok number 2, I’ve criticised him a lot early in the season but since then improved, he’s no worse than perez, really.
Martin (@f1hornet)
4th August 2022, 12:51
The one championship Ferrari did win with Kimi was arguably because McLaren messed up, more so than Ferrari winning it.
barnstable29
4th August 2022, 14:19
Totally agree with this too (coming from a Kimi fan). McLaren and their drivers failed that season, rather than Ferrari winning it on isolated merit.
MichaelN
4th August 2022, 19:27
Yes, McLaren messed various things up that season – but nobody will ever know how competitive McLaren would have been if they hadn’t been basing at least parts of their testing program on illegally obtained Ferrari data, something that Fernando Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa were deeply involved in. Other teams that were forced to switch from Michelin to Bridgestone that season noted at the time that McLaren’s adaptation had been surprisingly impressive.
barnstable29
4th August 2022, 14:18
Totally agree. You can throw Massa into that list too. He might just have won the champsionship over Hamilton if it weren’t for a few blunders here and there that season (fuel hose in Singapore jumps to mind).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2022, 21:34
Yes, 2008 wasn’t an impressive season for anyone of the contenders, they made lots of mistakes and massa also had an engine failure in hungary or something in the last few laps.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
4th August 2022, 12:23
At least everyone carries part of the blame this year: team, car, driver – all failed spectacularly at one point or the other.
Zs
7th August 2022, 15:00
Yeah, Leclerc 3% car 50% team 47%.
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
4th August 2022, 12:42
With 32 points covering places 2 to 6 in the WDC the drivers are looking sketchy about now as well as the team.
knightameer (@knightameer)
4th August 2022, 13:07
How to lose a season in 10 races: Have Binotto as your team principal and keep on defending your sub standard strategy team. Most of us playing the F1 manager game is making better strategic decisions while managing Ferrari, that too while keeping an eye on reliability, rivals, tyre temps, engine modes etc.
Carl Parker (@mysticarl)
4th August 2022, 13:28
It’s a bit harsh to lump this all on Ferrari, when they only looked so good at the beginning because RBR had a difficult start with reliability. I’m not saying they haven’t lost a lot of points based on reliability/strategy, but you can’t ignore others contribution to how good they were initially.
Having said that, I really think they need to do some rejigging of the way they deal with the strategy during the race. It’s clear from the PtC radio that they pre-plan a lot of different options, but the more subtle contributions and changes to assumptions used for those scenarios needs to be better dealt with. Things like looking at how tyres on other cars are performing compared to their projections should be standard, and just that should have meant they avoided the hard tyres in the last race, just as a recent example.
It’s still great that they can compete though – especially now Merc are back in the mix. If Ferrari sort out their issues and Merc keep improving, there’s still an outside chance that they can both regularly beat RBR and the points would rapidly go the other way. Unlikely, yes. But even just having 4-6 cars in with a good shout of competing is great on a race-by-race basis.
MichaelN
4th August 2022, 13:40
Agreed, the first races flattered Ferrari. Only in Australia did Red Bull seem genuinely off the pace.
Ferrari indeed has a woeful strategy team. They seem like data analysts, not racers. They are slow to adapt, and don’t seem able to factor in driver feedback quite like the other two big teams. They also can’t manage two drivers at the same time, and will inevitably hinder one of them whenever the two cars are close to each other in the race. Their stubborn refusal to pit Leclerc from the lead in Silverstone is a prime example of all those issues combined.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
4th August 2022, 13:50
It’s funny how so many people still think that driving for Ferrari is the pinnacle, that drivers no matter how many GP wins or championships yurn to become Ferrari drivers. I think the magic is long gone it died when Enzo Ferrari died. The prestige of driving for a legendary team run by a legend all gone, it was not always winning and the politics were hard but it was probably worth it to drive for Ferrari.
Now it’s just another Corporate team like the rest making decisions by committee with senior management not willing to pick up the phone and make the changes that Enzo would have made some time ago.
IfImnotverymuchmistaken
4th August 2022, 14:24
It’s part of the challenge. If you can become an F1 WC in a Ferrari, you can do it anywhere!
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
4th August 2022, 14:27
But nobody ever does, so what does that tell you? That you can’t ever be WDC (again) if you’ve ever been in a Ferrari?
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
4th August 2022, 14:40
I am reminded about when Ferrari got all mad in 2019 when Verstappen publicly called them out on their cheating and people were like “why now Max has burned all bridges at Ferrari and he will never drive there!” and Max, when asked, was like “yeah, I’m good at Red Bull, why would I leave for a team like Ferrari?”
And here we are, a few years later, collectively laughing at how easily they’re handing him his second WDC.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
4th August 2022, 14:12
It seems from this summary that they have made three baffling strategy errors as far as Leclerc goes at least. But then Leclerc has made two big errors himself.
I think the drivers need to be more assertive with the team. Especially Leclerc who seems far too passive with them bearing in mind he’s their best talent. If they cannot deliver for him, sooner or later he will be on his way. Another great WDC hope dashed by Ferrari’s management failures.
I realise Ferrari are trying to be fair to their drivers but there has been a couple of occasions when they really should have taken the championship situation into account and told Carlos to move over, for championship position reasons. Carlos is an average/good driver, not poor but I cannot see him ever challenging for a WDC unless he lucks into it with the right car at the right time.
It’s been a very disappointing display especially considering Ferrari’s 2022 car is so good.
IfImnotverymuchmistaken
4th August 2022, 14:40
I agree, the drivers’ attitude is a part of the problem.
Leclerc is clearly faster and more consistent, and is de facto if not de iure No 1 driver, but seems quite timid and too agreeable and indulging when dealing with the team.
He does whatever the team tells him, even if he thinks it’s the wrong choice, kind of like a No 2 driver should do.
Sainz is not as fast and more inconsistent, and is de facto if not de iure the No 2 driver, but is vocal when disagreeing with the team and tries to have things the way he thinks are better, kind of lik a a No 1 driver should do.
Thus adding to the wonderfully colourfull tapestry of Ferrari mixups.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
4th August 2022, 17:46
Agree with this. As far as I’ve heard from people close to Ferrari environment (former F2 driver from the neighbouring country, still driving for Ferrari in sports cars and now active on youtube), there’s a fierce struggle for position in the team and Sainz senior is apparently as toxic as he used to be at Red Bull. It was, after all, perfectly obvious in Silverstone where Ferrari completely ruined Leclerc’s race and gave a favourable strategy to a driver much more behind in the standings. This was not just sheer incompetence, rather an internal affair. An yes, agreed, there was more than one occassion when Ferrari wanted to play it “fair” but not because the real competitiveness of Sainz, rather because of vocality of the Sainz’s group in the team.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
4th August 2022, 18:16
@pironitheprovocateur
Spot on ! His history at RBR is well documented and Jos was fearsome when he stood up against him so he cannot damage Max. Sainz sr is also friend with the Agnellis, that’s why he is influential within the team and let’s not forget the that the current sporting director and former head of strategy who coincidentally seems always to go wrong in Leclerc’s direction is Spanish too.
Sainz has his father and his cousin manager who is now always present in the garage influencing the team towards him. Todt’s junior even when Leclerc was up against Vettel hasn’t always attended races on regular basis. He seems to be present lately in the Ferrari garage to counter the Sainzes weight.
MichaelN
4th August 2022, 19:10
I’ve noted earlier that Sainz seems to have greater sway within the team, but whatever the reasons for that and whichever people he has hanging around him, it’s still Binotto’s job to run a tight ship. The Silverstone race is an excellent case study of how not to run a race team. Yes, Ferrari “won” but they did so at the cost of a 1-2 and their shenanigans made their better driver drop down the order and off the podium.
Binotto is too smart not to understand this, even if he perhaps can’t always see it in real time. But for whatever reason he isn’t capable of correcting these odd habits and faulty processes within the team. Unfortunately, because his technical skills are quite solid, his antics in 2018 in regards to Arrivabene demonstrate that he’ll never accept a ‘mere’ technical role again.
Ferrari, for better or worse, is stuck with this clique.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
4th August 2022, 21:55
MichaelN,
The thing is, with Arrivabene in charge and despite being a tobacco salesman with no technical background whatsoever, Ferrari were far more sharper strategy wise than it is the case now. In 2018, after the Ferrari PU improvements over the years Wolff started shopping at Ferrari engine department.
After securing Lorenzo Sassi’s services who was the whistle blower with regard to the Ferrari ERS deployment and the double battery story which resulted in an additional monitoring to the Ferrari PU starting Monaco 2018, the rumours suggests that Mercedes approached Binotto for a technical role à la Aldo Costa but in the PU department.
Binotto have already complained about Arrivabene’s management style and was in complete disagreement with him Ferrari were forced to promote him and sacrifice Arrivabene in 2019 in order not to lose him. Imagine the disaster that could have happened if Binotto joined Mercedes in 2019 with all the knowledge about Ferrari PU tricks.
Spot on !
Leroy (@g-funk)
4th August 2022, 14:16
Screwederia Ferarri
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th August 2022, 15:13
@g-funk good one! they should sell Ferrari screws, not champagne :-)
Leroy (@g-funk)
4th August 2022, 15:34
@freelittlebirds. Thanks! And of course, now I notice my spelling mistake in Ferrari. lol. I wish RaceFans had an edit button!
Green Flag
4th August 2022, 15:44
FYI, Ferrari champagne, made by Ferrari Trento, has nothing to do with Ferrari cars. Ferrari is a very common Italian surname, like Smith.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th August 2022, 17:06
Thanks – I just assumed Ferrari was making its own brand of champagne.
Mark in Florida
4th August 2022, 14:25
Ferrari has lost the plot this year totally. Binnochio is an engineer not a racer. His over reliance on data makes him slow to react in real time to a shifting race. We have a lot of engineers where I work. When they have tons of data to go over to solve a problem it gets harder and harder to make a clear cut decision on what to do to solve it. We call paralysis through analysis. That to me is Ferrari problem. They paralyze themselves by trying to stick to a preplanned strategy. When things change in the race such as weather or temps or being out of sequence somehow. They totally fail to adapt on the fly. They for all practical purposes are paralysed and can’t change their strategy because they are committed to the numbers. To win you have to have a feel for the flow of the race. You have to make split second decisions to take advantage of sudden opportunities that appear. Binnochio is oblivious to any of this, even arguing after the race how their numbers were right and they can’t do any different. They have no chance of success with this kind of thinking in place. Charles just needs to leave while he can.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
4th August 2022, 15:02
I mean, you can hear it every weekend, F1TV Commentary likes to joke about it but they’re right. “Plan A”, “Plan D”, etc. They’re going through half the alphabet sometimes with all the plans they’ve thought up pre-race. You heard it in Hungary too, “Plan D?” asked Leclerc, before getting the call to make a third stop for softs.
What a stark contrast to the other teams, that have interactions with their drivers during the race. Lewis telling the team the tires feel good, or Bono asking him about what tire he wants to get in the next stop. Or GP telling Verstappen how the deg looks on Mediums on other cars, or what time offsets they do.
I agree with your assessment that Binotto and his strategy team fail to adapt because they ignore their best and biggest data point, their drivers, during the race.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
4th August 2022, 18:37
@sjaakfoo
Besides, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C… They are also predictable even for a 10 year old boy. 1 stop, 2 stops, 3 stops. It depends. Hamilton and Bono for example use different combinations of messages in order to deceit the opposition listening on the radio “My tyres are shot !” and then he goes 40 laps on that set of tyres. Sometimes Bono asks him to push a setting on his steering wheel to confirm his tyre choice.
Flavio Briatore was critical of Ferrari blatant team orders in the 2010 German GP “Fernando is faster than you ! Can you confirm you understood the message”. He said that he used to issue team orders before when they were banned by telling his drivers a pre-defined message that has nothing to do with the their positions. This was a decade ago…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2022, 22:20
True, could be anything, “you will not have the drink!” “you serious?” “affirmative” *lets the other driver pass*, not difficult to agree.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
4th August 2022, 17:48
+100
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
4th August 2022, 15:21
Well, Mercedes may be back in form. If both Ferraris can tango with Max forcing a few of his trademark moves on other drivers under pressure, who knows Mercedes could be back in the game for the WCC and WDC.
So all’s not lost for the fans! It’s been so one-sided with Max literally mopping the floor with the Ferrari drivers on track.
Hey Christian, can you please me hand me the Leclerc mop?
Sure, here it goes.
Sorry Christian, I need the Sainz one now.
Here you go – Sainz mop.
Thanks, any chance we can combine the two mops into one?
We’re looking into it Max!
Luke S (@joeypropane)
4th August 2022, 16:57
+46 points to -80… Has there even been such a large point swing in a full season? Let alone TEN RACES.
MichaelN
4th August 2022, 19:19
Vettel led Hamilton by 17 points after Bahrain 2018 (race 2/21) and ended the season 88 points behind.
Leclerc’s swing is even worse. Though to be fair, it took Hamilton and Mercedes a bit longer to get up to speed in 2018 than it has Red Bull this season. They’ve been solid since the start, and if it hadn’t been for those two Verstappen retirements the narrative that Ferrari ‘lost’ something would be different. Red Bull was always the stronger race team (not necessarily the fastest in qualifying).
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
4th August 2022, 17:34
Speaking after the race, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto defended their strategy. “When we fitted the hard, our simulation was that it could have been a difficult couple of laps of warm-up, slower than the medium for 10-11 laps, and then it would have come back and been faster by the end of the stint – and it was a 30-lap stint,” he explained.
This really says it all. Speaking more generally of the issue, the Ferrari leadership is a bunch of incompetent yet obedient doggos whose greatest quality lies in the loyalty to the Fiat generalissimos. The political struggle that’s happening behind the scenes is insane, and I’m firmly convinced Fiat is not interested in having a successful F1 team, occasional wins and visibility for the branch suffice; greater success would come at expense of politically stronger Ferrari and Fiat isn’t interested in having strong political figures in their group.
Regarding Leclerc, he’s been too harsh on himself. It’s hard to be flawless when your team’s not only consistently incompetent but the power struggle happening behing your back sabotages your position. Sainz and his father hijacked the season when Ferrari had the second decent car in the last 13 years, the farce of Silverstone was really awkward and pitiable. They might turn the team to their side, but whole Ferrari will be much weaker in the years coming.
Ajaxn
4th August 2022, 20:27
All this says is F1 needs Mercedes to make a show of competition, otherwise this wont be called a sport…
Todfod (@todfod)
5th August 2022, 8:45
Agree… Can’t wait for them to get their act together. Fans might despise them because of their era of dominance.. but when this team is working at it’s best, it’s the only match for Verstappen and Red Bull.
Fans want an epic fight between two teams at the top of their game…. Not some amateurs who have the fastest car but don’t know how to go racing and compete against their peers.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
4th August 2022, 22:22
And wow, while it’s the truth, these titles are pretty harsh!
David BR (@david-br)
5th August 2022, 2:09
Can Ferrari ever match the technical and strategic level of professionalism of Red Bull? No.
Can Leclerc ever match Verstappen’s consistency? No.
Ferrari built a good car this year. But they need a better car than their rivals (Red Bull or Mercedes) to make up for these two deficits. I still can’t decided which was worse, Leclerc binning his car from the lead in France trying to push a bit more but otherwise under no pressure from anyone on track. Or Ferrari putting hard tyres on his car in Hungary apparently oblivious to the readily available evidence that they’d be a disaster. Either way the mistakes encapsulate why they’re not at the same level, driver or team.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
5th August 2022, 7:34
I wholeheartedly supported Leclerc during the first few races of the year, because I wanted to see a good championship battle between him and Verstappen. Now, for the latter half of the year, I think I’ll just grab some popcorn and see how Ferrari manage to mess up the next races… surely they can’t manage to keep losing like this?
Todfod (@todfod)
5th August 2022, 8:48
@kaiie
You’re underestimating Binotto’s leadership. Leclerc is capable of putting it on pole for all of the remainder of the races, and Ferrari’s strategists already have a plan in how he will finish off the podium in all of those races.
This team is a next level disaster. In 26 years of watching this sport.. I’ve never come across a team with such a gross level of underperformance and incompetence. The Ferrari 2022 season will go down in history for what not to do in F1.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
5th August 2022, 10:59
@todfod
If they could make a plan to throw Leclerc off the podium, then the strategy team is functional. The issue is that they cannot make a plan for anything, they just panic when they see anything different than they have planned and the absolute chaos is installed…
Todfod (@todfod)
5th August 2022, 11:03
@tifoso1989
Maybe they should strategize for getting Leclerc off the podium and they might win some races instead
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
5th August 2022, 11:06
@todfod
+1