Ferrari sure it has neutralised Red Bull speed advantage

Ferrari says that last week's Austrian Grand Prix proves that it has finally overcome the straight line speed advantage of their chief rivals Red Bull.

The teams started the season with very similar lap times, but they were doing so in contrasting ways. While the f1-75 was quicker through slow and medium speed corners, the RB18 had the edge down the straights and in flat-out turns.

That gave Ferrari the edge in qualifying, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz claiming seven poles in the first 11 races in 2022 to just four for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

• Read also: Binotto stopped watching Austrian GP amid Leclerc drama

But it's been a different story in races, where the Red Bull straight line speed fed into DRS overtaking opportunities and allowed them to snatch the lead of the race and make it impossible for Ferrari to strike back.

However it was a different story in Austria, where Verstappen started form pole but was passed not just once but multiple times by the Ferrari pair, and for this first time in 2022 seemingly had no answer to Leclerc's pace.

“We had a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull, no doubt, in terms of straight line speed," Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto told Motorsport.com last week. "Especially in DRS zones.

“In terms of power of their DRS, compared to ours, we worked a lot on it," he continued. "The new rear wing that we introduced first with Charles in Canada, we have had it on both cars since UK.

"With that new rear wing, I think we have simply reduced the gap we had in terms of speed," he said. "They still have got a slight advantage, but it’s very little or negligible.”

Binotto explained that rather than simply reducing downforce, the new lower drag wing allowed their car to pick up straight-line pace while maintaining its advantage in the corners and not adding to tyre degradation.

After that, Binotto credited the drivers for getting the most out of the set-up.

"We have been fast [in Austria] not only because of the car, but because I think the two drivers made a fantastic weekend in terms of car balance, car setup, understanding the tyres, managing the tyres and driving on track.

"It's only about the grip limited corners where we can make the difference," he said. “In the power limited, we are very close.

Ferrari race operations manager Claudio Albertini said recently that the new wing delivers its best performance at medium downforce tracks like the Red Bull Ring.

"[We are] keeping that level of downforce, and we'll work on the efficiencies to have a more efficient wing rear wing," he said, adding that it had been inspired by watching how Red Bull performed in the early races.

“With developments, sometimes you realise when you are racing. You can see how you compare to other teams and where you can improve," he said.

“We could see that, for example in top speed, it was an area which there was some room to improve, and we improved the efficiency for this reason.”

Although Ferrari won, Leclerc had to battle a sticking throttle in the closing laps to hold on to the lead ahead of Verstappen. And Sainz retired from the race 16 laps from the finish when his power unit let go in spectacular fashion.

It slightly took the gloss off their second Grand Prix win in a row, and Binotto admitted that reliability would have to improve at Maranello.

"We have a very good performing engine, that gives me hope for the future when we have found a way to make it reliable as well," he told Corriere della Sera.

"These are problems that worry us for the coming races, not in the long term," he ionsisted. "I am convinced that we can solve it as a team. For this kind of intervention you need time

"You need to design, produce and homologate new components for reliability. A few weeks are not enough. In the short term we will try to manage it in terms of kilometres."

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