You can’t think of the Formula 1 World Championship without thinking about Ferrari and Mercedes, one of these two teams is the most ancient in the history of this championship, and the other has recently achieved unparalleled success. Two teams, with very different working styles, that need to be evaluated when looking at how they deal with the different challenges they face in 2022…
The start of the 2022 season of the Formula 1 World Championship brings with it a lot of aspirations for Ferrari, which has put the radical changes in technical regulations in mind as an ideal opportunity to return and compete in the lead.
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Winter testing kicked off, and from the first laps it was clear Ferrari was back on top with a car that was really well-designed, integrated, fast and well-balanced.
An outstanding performance, coupled with winning three out of the first four rounds, put Ferrari as the favorite to win the title and return the championships to the team’s factory in Maranello, Italy. However, after that, the team’s impressive pace did not continue.
We can say, with confidence, that Ferrari is the fastest car of the season, and all we have to do is look at the results in the qualifying sessions and the fast laps, to see that this car is the best of the season.
But while Ferrari has made a quantum leap in performance, they are not acting like a winning team, they are not acting like a top team, there is no flexibility in strategic decisions, there are many wrong decisions that cost the team a lot.
This combined, at the same time, with the reliability problems suffered by the team, and we must not forget, however, the costly errors of drivers, whether Carlos Sainz or Charles Leclerc, which led to a large number of points lost.
All of the above means that, although the second half of the 2022 F1 season has not started, Ferrari’s hopes of winning championship titles have faded, with their competition for an integrated team, for a strong team, which is the Red Bull team that takes advantage of all the opportunities available to it and is walking, with its star Max Verstappen is on the cusp of winning the world title.
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On the other hand, let’s look at the Mercedes team, which has dominated and won all the constructors’ titles since 2014, in addition to winning all the drivers’ titles since that year except last season.
The Mercedes team started the season with a car that was not a mature design, its design was certainly innovative with the sides of the car, but it was not stable, the handling of this car was not easy, and the team has struggled a lot since winter testing.
Just a few months ago, the Mercedes team struggled to qualify for the top 10 in qualifying sessions. But, what have they done in the face of these hardships and challenges?
The team continued to act as one of the leading teams, they took all the opportunities they had to get on the podium, even if it didn’t result in winning races so far, but they scored many valuable points, and, for the most part, they made the right strategic decisions.
This, in addition to the team’s incredible efforts in developing the car and working at the factory, made the W13 more stable, better tuned, and thus outperformed Ferrari in terms of points scored in previous rounds.
Thus, the Mercedes team, with its third best car of the season, is able to outperform, in scoring points and on the podium, over a team that suffers administratively and intellectually despite having the best and fastest car.
So pretty, F1-75 🥰#beFerrari 🔴 pic.twitter.com/iSJQRgfhWi
– Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 6, 2022
That’s why Mercedes, despite not winning a race, despite its disastrous performance in the first rounds of the season, is only 30 points behind Ferrari, and has a serious chance of snatching second place in the constructors’ championship if it continues like this if Ferrari still hasn’t found a better way to work and run the races.
Perhaps Ferrari’s failure to win a title in the last 14 years is starting to reflect on them. The team lacks a winning mentality, due to the absence of championships throughout this period, and they will have to make drastic changes in the way they work and think if they want to restore their winning mentality and exploit the maximum capabilities of the car available to them.
Otherwise, Ferrari will remain in its current state, unable to pose any real threat to the Formula 1 World Championship title, for a long time…
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