Ferrari is not planning on changing the way it goes racing despite crashes, reliability concerns, and strategic errors blighting the opening half of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
At the French Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc crashed out while leading and a week later, in Hungary, a strategy call saw the Monegasque finish a lowly sixth.
That was despite starting second and heading the encounter for a time, while eventual race winner Max Verstappen lined up 10th in the grid.
It’s the latest in a string of incidents Leclerc has experienced this year, having also retired with mechanical issues while leading in Spain and Azerbaijan.
Add into the mix the woes suffered by Carlos Sainz, and the strategic confusion or mistakes it has made during races, it points to a lack of confidence within the team.
“It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there’s nothing to change as well,” Ferrari’s Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, said.
“It’s always a matter of continuous learning and building; building experience, building skills.
“If I look again at the balance of the first half of the season, there is no reason why we should change,” he added.
“I think we simply need to address what was wrong [in Hungary], that we need first to understand, and then to address and try to be back competitive.”
Trailing Verstappen by 80 points in the drivers’ championship with nine races remaining, Binotto suggests Leclerc’s recent run of results will serve only to refire him in the second half of the season.
“It is so,” Binotto responded when asked if the break before the Belgian Grand Prix offered the Monegasque an opportunity to reset.
“Certainly, try to rest, to relax, to come back even more hungry.
“I think, as a leader as he [Leclerc] is [going] to continue the building; building for the team, building for himself, step by step, starting to look at each race as an opportunity to win.
“We are winning and losing altogether,” he added.
“[Hungary] has not been a great one, as the last race has not been a great one, but I think there is still much potential.”
With nine events remaining, Verstappen need score only 163 more points to secure his second world drivers’ championship.
It makes the United States Grand Prix in October the first event at which the championship could therefore be decided.
The 2022 Formula 1 season returns with the Belgian Grand Prix on August 26-28.
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