Ferrari claims that it made no compromises with its 2022 F1 project even though they vied against McLaren for P3 in 2021.
Ferrari had kept limited ambitions for the 2021 season, as they were recovering from a disastrous 2020 season. The Maranello based team managed to achieve the best of the rest tag by beating McLaren in the standings.
However, that victory came at the latter part of the season, and Ferrari was constantly fighting McLaren on the track. But Ferrari admits their biggest priority was never defeating McLaren.
They admitted that they were more focused on their 2022 project in the process instead of the fight against the Woking-based team. Unlike Mercedes Vs Red Bull, they hardly diverted their resources from the following year’s preparations.
“The answer is no,” Mekies said in a select media roundtable, including Autosport in Abu Dhabi. “I think we made very clear from very early on. We took the decision to switch to 2022.”
“We were hoping at the time because we are quite distant from McLaren, which is early on in the season, we were hoping that we would be able to fight eventually for the third place.”
“But we had chosen to make zero compromises for 2022. So that’s probably the cleanest answer I can give you today. We have been asked that 25 times, and no way.”
“The only development we had in the second half of the year was the hybrid, which again is something we’ll use for next year.”
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Ferrari never had game-changing development in 2021
Mekies claims that it wasn’t significant enough to drown McLaren despite the power unit development. Therefore, he signals that Ferrari defeated their rivals on a performative basis.
“But if you reflect on it, the gaps are so small, and we often look back and say well, if you didn’t have it, these few hundredths or tenths would have put you X backwards,” Mekies said.
“I think because the field is so [tight], we felt the effect it gave us in the second part of the season, or in the third part of the season, was more significant perhaps.”
“The other aspect is, as I’m sure you recall, we were so exposed in overtaking situations that it was at some stages making the absolute pace of the car a bit less relevant because we were then so exposed on the battle that once you have fallen back, that’s it.”
“So that small help in that in the end also helped us to better exploit some of the potential of the car.”
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