Although looking good at the beginning of the year, Ferrari had a pretty bleak Formula 1 This season, for a multitude of reasons – strategy is one of them. Thankfully, captain Mattia Binotto seems to have acknowledged this fact to media… but he believes a fast and reliable car can solve Ferrari’s strategy problem.
Report from AS Log, a Spanish sports newspaper. In translation, his quote reads:
“Our ups and downs come from different fields. Reliability comes first, because to win you have to be reliable, and that’s not the case this season. Then the speed of the car. We were very competitive in qualifying but our race speed was not enough to win. If you have a fast and reliable car, you can make a mistake in strategy and ‘pit stop’ but then you will compensate with the car. That’s where we have to work in spite of the ups and downs that strategies can cause.”
Unfortunately, Ferrari rejected Binotto’s affections. There are reliability concerns with fast speeds Ferrari 2022 machine, yes. Addressing those issues will help the team and its drivers chase the championship, yes. But there was countless Strategy error completely destroyed a good race.
Ferrari’s inability to manage tire deterioration throughout the season was partly due to mechanical problems and partly to strategic concerns. An issue like tire wear needs to be tackled from many angles, but a strategic one is one of them: You just have to be aware of how your car might differ from general Pirelli simulations. any. Then you have to organize a race around the tires, and, you know, manage a successful pit stop without fumbling, as Ferrari has done many times this year.
In fact, if Ferrari had managed their strategy better with the car they have in 2022, we could have had a more compelling championship battle. It’s by no means a perfect machine, but its reliability concerns are insignificant compared to things like driver or strategic errors. How many more points will Ferrari gain in 2022 if, for example, it is not prepared for pit stops or has a better understanding of the tire compound to change and when to change it. Making cars faster and more reliable for 2023 won’t do it all other things problem disappeared.
