Ferrari explain "no compromise" 2022 approach

Ferrari

Ferrari explain "no compromise" 2022 approach

Ferrari is leaving nothing on the table for the coming season

Sam Hall

Sunday 30 January 2022 18:30

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has explained "no compromises" have been made with the team's 2022 car as the Scuderia eye "long-term" success.

F1 will race to a set of all-new aerodynamic regulations for the coming season with teams starting their designs from a largely blank sheet of paper.

After experiencing its worst campaign since 1980 in 2021, Ferrari bounced back spectacularly last term to finish third, beating McLaren to the best-of-the-rest position after a season-long battle.

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F1 raced to a budget cap for the first time last season with Ferrari electing to stop development early to focus on the coming year, compromising 2021 to ensure no such compromise in '22.

Asked in December how the team had managed to adjust its structure to fit the budget cap, Binotto explained: "Certainly, we had a big budget, maybe not the biggest.

"But with the financial regulations and the budget cap, we had to cut some of the developments and to cut parts of our organisation. When you’ve got a cap, no doubt you need to limit yourselves.

"As Ferrari, as first, we identified 2022 as our top priority, so no compromises have been done in developing the 2022 cars.

"The reason for putting 2022 as a top priority is, I think, quite straight and obvious.

"It’s a new era in terms of regulations and more than that I think that knowing that we are behind in terms of team capacity compared to the best competitors this is why it was important for us to really focus on the future and try to do our best for whatever will be our medium or long-term future.

"That’s why compromised the 2021 [development]."

Although the aerodynamic regulations have changed between years, the power unit specifications will remain unchanged until 2026 with Ferrari introducing a new hybrid system to great effect late last season.

"We addressed a few issues on car behaviour at the very start, in the first two or three races, but then we stopped completely the development and focused on 2022, except on the power unit, which we introduced in Sochi, Russia as the first development," added Binotto.