«GP Barcelona a disaster. Machine impossible to understand»- Corriere.it

MONTMELO’
Fuoricorso at the university of F1. There are those who have studied and are starting to understand, there
Mercedes
who professor emeritus —
Max Verstappen

, 40 center in his career, the third on the Catalan circuit, the place of the exams: solo escape, +53 points on Perez -, and who puts himself on the books but doesn’t get over it. Barcelona was supposed to be the crossroads of the season for Ferrari, months had been worked to anticipate unexpected technical updates, but the detour led to a dead end. Sainz off the podium, fifth, after starting from the front row, was also overtaken by Russell, twelfth at the start.

The chronicle of the Spanish GP: Verstappen first, then Hamilton and Russell

Old or new doesn’t change, according to Leclerc: A disastrous weekend. The car is impossible to understand: I mount the same type of tires in two different phases of the race (the hard ones, ed) and behaves differently even if I do the same things. Out of the points, eleventh, after being bottled up behind Gasly. Everything for him fell on Saturday with his sensational elimination in the first phase of qualifying.

Number 16 blamed it on a mysterious breakdown
, yesterday disassembling half the car (and replacing the rear with a new one, and changing parts of the hybrid engine) was not found. The investigations will continue in Maranello in the coming days, the suspicion remains that it was stat that caused the disasterit is a mix between the driving difficulty coefficient of the vehicle and the frustration of a driver who at the beginning of the year had left to win the World Cup, supporting the Vasseur revolution. Even the team principal has now ended up in the blender, like those who preceded him. He is discovering how difficult it is to bring order to chaos and clings to the troubles of others, in seventh place behind Alonso even preceded by his partner Stroll: We went better than the Aston Martins, therefore a step ahead of Miami (one of the lowest reached by Ferrari since here, ed) been there. We lack consistency with the tyres. And the others don’t sleep…. The others are not those of Red Bull, unattainable. The certainty emerged last week in Montecarlo, when a crane lifted Perez’s car, revealing the background design. The head of one of the rival teams, after analyzing the photos together with the engineers, confided to us behind anonymity: I’m a year ahead of everyone else.

Well, there are two problems for Ferrari at this point: saving next season for which technical grafts are needed, fresh ideas on the behavior of the suspensions, on the understanding of the tyres. Then we need to face the desert crossing in 2023 in a dignified way, with 15 Grand Prix to go at the finish line in Abu Dhabi. it is useless and harmful to launch out in proclamations of victory (as in Montecarlo) when you then collect foolishness or empty passes.

The numbers are all against, starting with yesterday’s gaps from Mercedes. Sainz finished more than 20 seconds behind Hamilton and was overtaken with embarrassing ease by Russell. And to think that young George ended up in the gravel during the warm-up laps. Mercedes has overturned the car, abandoning the (losing) technical philosophy of zero bellies. The first fruits have arrived, Toto Wolff remains cautious: We have made risky decisions, I am happy that they are paying. But let’s keep our feet on the ground: the road to take Red Bull back is very long. But at least the direction seems to be the right one.