Ferrari F1 believes the theory that tire degradation worsened during the 2022 season was a “misunderstanding”.
Charles Leclerc won two of the first three Grands Prix of the season and Ferrari started the season as title contenders. Not only was Ferrari the fastest car in terms of sheer pace, but it was also worth noting that, in the early part of the season, it outperformed rivals Red Bull in tire degradation.
However, Red Bull started to reduce the weight of the RB18, which improved tire life, and it was Ferrari who struggled with their tires in the second half of the season.
From the outside it looked like Ferrari had reduced tire life and Red Bull made a big profit, but Ferrari don’t see things that way. Instead, we attribute the shorter tire life to the fact that it is no longer the fastest car.
The Ferrari driver had to push harder to catch up with the Red Bull, which damaged the tyres.
“Honestly, I think it’s a misunderstanding,” Ferrari senior performance engineer Jock Clear said of the impression that the team’s tire degradation had worsened.
“I think what we struggled with was extreme pace. In the first 12-13 races of the year, both drivers were able to go head-to-head with Red Bull.”
“Red Bull closed the two-tenth second gap a bit, so we didn’t get pole position, so we were catching up a bit.”
“And of course, if you actually try to race a faster car than you, I think that shows up in tire degradation, so I don’t think it was a big issue for us.”
Jock Clear believes that in races where Ferrari and Red Bull performed exactly the same, there was really little choice in terms of tire degradation.
“When the car was balanced the tire degradation was slightly better than the Red Bull,” said Jock Clear.
“But at the end of the season we struggled with Charles trying to catch up with the Red Bull, which unfortunately had a slightly faster car.”
“I used a little too much of the tyres, just to hang on to Red Bull. And of course it’s very difficult for Charles to say ‘Okay, I can’t keep up. Let him go’. He’s a racing driver. No such thing. I won’t.”
“So you use the tires a bit too much and you pay the price in a long stint.”
After losing the F1 world championship to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc believes getting a better handle on tire management is as important as improving reliability and strategy for 2023. .
“At one point in the season we had reliability issues and later we paid the price with penalties and other things,” Charles Leclerc said at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
“I think we made too many mistakes in strategy, at some points in the season, and in terms of tire management, we weren’t 100 per cent consistent enough.
“Abu Dhabi was a good race, but we had some very bad races and I don’t think we have yet figured out how to do good tire management all the time.
“These are three important aspects that we are focusing on at the moment.”
