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Ferrari is not planning to introduce a major round of upgrades to its 2022 Formula 1 contender for the Miami Grand Prix.
The Scuderia sits atop the constructors’ championship after the opening four races of the year, with two grand prix wins courtesy of Charles Leclerc.
It endured a difficult Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend with Carlos Sainz turfed into retirement by Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap.
Leclerc was on course for third before a spin with 10 laps remaining dropped him down the order.
The net result was a weekend in which netted the team 20 points versus a near-maximum 58 for Red Bull.
The Milton Keynes squad dominated the weekend, dropping just a single point, with some suggestions that it’s found more than three tenths of a second in performance by shedding weight since the Australian Grand Prix.
Ferrari was the only team not to bring updates to Imola, team boss Mattia Binotto reasoning that with just a single practice session before cars entered parc ferme that it didn’t afford the team sufficient time to evaluate them fully.
That will change for Miami, however, with the Italian team boss revealing there were some bits in the pipeline.
“We will not have the main one [upgrade] in Miami, but still we will have a few new parts on the car,” he said.
“Miami is a high-speed circuit compared to the one we had so far, so certainly in terms of downforce we will run something different compared to what we have.
“That level of downforce we bring to Miami, we are quite confident it’s quite an efficient one.
“But we know as well Red Bull has got a good medium-low downforce package as well, and they will be competitive.
“It will be a completely new track, a new challenge, quite interesting – pretty curious to be there,” he added.
“So we will adapt our current downforce level, which is important.
“We’re still working on the porpoising that, as you can see, is quite visible – we’ve got it, certainly more than Red Bull, and in there, there is some performance potential as well that we need to try to get.
“So this is the main one for Miami, but let me say that the main upgrades will come soon after.”
The Miami Grand Prix runs on May 6-8 after which the circus returns to Europe with the Spanish Grand Prix on May 20-22, the first event at which teams are expected to bring notable upgrades to their cars.
