Ferrari: TD039 and budget cap gate must not be excuses to justify 2022 F1 defeat

Where there is a winner, there is always a loser. It is a law of nature (not in the naturalistic sense of the concept) that applies to every area of human life. In the case of Formula 1, for every winner, there are 19 losers. But the one that makes news and produces the most noise, is the first of the losers. Which, at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 season, could be Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. Provided that he manages to get to second place finish in the drivers’ standings, a position occupied by Sergio Perez ahead of the United States Grand Prix.

Remembering how events unfolded for Ferrari in championship with punctuality is a painful exercise which has been done several times. The fact is that there are two F1-75 cars: the first – which is the one seen at Montmelò (from the moment it put the wheels on the track for the winter pre-season testing session) up to the French Grand Prix – and the one that subsequently offered very disappointing performances, as explained by funoanalisitecnica.com.

We refer to the car that was no longer able to match Red Bull from Hungary to Japan. Seven victories in a row for the RB18 which offered the drivers’ title to Max Verstappen on a beautiful chiseled silver plate.

At this point the boundary between the merits of the winners and the demerits of Ferrari is very blurred, almost imperceptible. How would the championship have gone if the men from Maranello hadn’t made a burst of mistakes in the first phase and if, above all, they hadn’t basically vanished from Paul Ricard onwards? It is difficult to answer punctually, but it is clear that Max Verstappen’s task of winning the championship would not have been so easy.

At times it seemed that the Dutchman did not even have to push as hard as possible, a feeling intensified in Grands Prix like Monza and Spa Francorchamps when the RB18 n°1, despite the setbacks on the grid, managed to completely dominate with ease. And in fact, 14 out of 18 races are not won by chance. But such dominant displays were seen only late in the season because, previously, the situation was very different.

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Damon Hill spoke of this strange trend, Red Bull in constant improvement and Ferrari in regression, without referring to a specific reason. The 1996 world champion did not hold back his impressions in a recent discussion during the F1 Nation podcast: “I think it is very difficult to determine whether this year Verstappen’s title is more due to Red Bull and Max’s brilliance or whether Ferrari was the one to shoot itself in the foot “.

And then the comments that shook the walls of the Maranello factories: “It was a performance at times deplorable from Ferrari because they had shown so much promise at the beginning. However, between the strategy, some mistakes of the drivers and the lack of ability to develop the car, the team did not represent a challenge for Max”.

The former Williams man has put aside the label but has probably hit the heart of the matter: Ferrari has sadly lost the technical battle of developments. The F1-75 seemed to remain at the same level, at that configuration presented in February, from Ferrari was unable to progress. The RB18, on the other hand, underwent a constant and dense development program that was based on continuous weight loss.

The Technical Directive 039 certainly played a role, but it clearly was not a regulation change aimed at favoring the men of Milton Keynes who, unlike the Ferrari team, understood how to move in the changed technical context. A merit that Adrian Newey’s direct staff claims and which shows the ability to improve during the season.

Something that in the Maranello team, and unfortunately history proves it incontrovertibly, is very rare. The 2022 championship is now over, but Ferrari has a duty to learn from the blow suffered by avoiding to justify defeat with alibis such as Technical Directive 039 or Red Bull’s budget cap breach.