The errors which Ferrari must address for the second half of 2022

While they may have started strong, the iconic Italian marque has recently been doing anything but continue its good run. With several problems dotting over the first half of their 2022 campaign, Scuderia Ferrari must have corrected these issues to smoothen their races and limit unfortunate performances. There is still time for the scarlet team to fix their woes.

Driver & car reliability

Ferrari, interestingly enough, had quite an impressive start to their season. With a one-two finish at the opening round in Bahrain, the race’s biggest talking point was how Red Bull experienced a double DNF. The excitement for scarlet success was furthered when reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, suffered an engine failure during the Australian Grand Prix. Now, the tables have well and truly turned. The worst mechanical failures for Ferrari came at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Charles Leclerc suffered worse with an engine blowout while leading. 

While these are out of the driver’s hands, there have also been several unforced errors on the pilots’ parts. Carlos Sainz’s race at the Australian Grand Prix came to an early end after finding himself in a gravel trap on lap two, Leclerc gave up a strong podium finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by losing control in the wet and the Monegasque failed to capitalise on a likely win at the French Grand Prix.

While Ferrari can paper over the cracks by analysing powertrain diagnostics, human error is not so data-driven. The team will do everything they can to prevent any more failures amongst their pool of engines, but the drivers must continue to find that limit between speed and control. This will take internal resolve and increased levels of focus to ensure that these mistakes do not continue to occur.

Strategy 

Perhaps the biggest fix required for Ferrari is in their race strategy. Scenes of Ferrari creating a strategic blunder during a race have become all too familiar and are now heavily costing them points in both championships. The biggest mistakes have come in the shape of Leclerc being told to double stack behind teammate Sainz at the Monaco GP (effectively ceding the win to Red Bull) and at the Hungarian GP.

The fix for this isn’t a straightforward one. If Ferrari wanted to achieve significant corrections in this area, a strict internal review had to have been conducted behind the scenes. By modelling the entire decision-making process, applying past failures as case studies and iterating through suggestions, Ferrari can pinpoint and correct the areas where bottlenecks/mistakes are occurring. Running through these stages with a fine-tooth comb, not for the purpose of blame, will help the team identify where the issues are and diagnose them accordingly.

Driver orders

Now that F1 is approaching the latter half of the season, both championships will be shaping up to take their final pecking order. Ferrari is still locked in the fight for both titles, but they will need to pick their fights correctly. One fight that they need to manage will be the inter-team rivalry. By ensuring both Leclerc and Sainz are on the same page, getting team orders across without disobedience will be crucial. Ferrari must use it as minimally and effectively as possible, especially to prevent disrupting a dynamic between two drivers they expect to field for long into the future.