Ferrari has got off to a brilliant start in the 2022 season as they have made sure to secure two of the three trophies for themselves.
Ferrari has been in a close battle with the Red Bull since the beginning of the 2022 season. Ferrari’s driver Charles Leclerc took the pole position in Bahrain and his teammate Carlos Sainz followed him to P2. The win for Leclerc came after an intense battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
In Saudi Arabian GP, Leclerc took the lead from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. However, in the final laps, Verstappen attacked Leclerc to snatch the lead.
The Red Bull driver went ahead to take the victory leaving Leclerc and Sainz for P2 and P3. Leclerc was impressed with the race and said that it was fun and all races should be like this.
Talking about the battle between the two constructors, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto reckons very fine details will ascertain the outcome of individual race results as the season progresses.
Both Leclerc and Verstappen were evenly matched throughout the race in Jeddah. The gap between the two drivers never grew more than two seconds.
Also Read: Ferrari boss furious over Max Verstappen’s unsafe release under safety car in Jeddah
Where do Ferrari and Red Bull differ?
In Saudi Arabia, while Leclerc pulled away through the more technical sections of the track, Verstappen came closer to him along the straights due to a slightly lower downforce.
It was visible that even when the Dutchman managed to get ahead of Leclerc, the latter was able to plan another attack before they crossed the chequered flag.
Due to these minor downforce differences between the two teams, Binotto thinks it all depends on the small margins on which future races will be decided.
Explaining where he felt the characteristics of the Italian team differed from Red Bull and where the Scuderia intends to bring development given the knowledge of their opponent, Binotto said that his team had made their downforce choice based on analysis.
“We saw Max was on a slightly higher downforce level on Friday, and he reduced it,” Binotto said.
“We decided ourselves to stay on a higher level of downforce because we believed that was important for tyre degradation.”
“But, during the race, the tyre degradation was very little. I see that their choice merits some analysis from our side. But, overall, it’s always a compromise.”
“We have proved as well because it has been a long race, that both choices can be a good choice. It was only a matter of details that decided the race at the end.”
Also Read: Carlos Sainz hopes to join Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen in fight for victory
