The man who led the championship in the opening rounds of the 2022 season stands at a miserable 8th after two races in. Having only gathered 6 points in his tally as of now, Charles Leclerc is way off from where he intended to be after becoming the first of the losers, finishing 146 points behind Max Verstappen. This saga is from the year when Ferrari had one of the fastest cars. The massive downgrade this year, combined with a very worrying factor, may make Maranello see themselves pushed out to midfield. An F1 Pundit, David Croft, gives his account of what he witnessed in Jeddah and what he thinks Ferrari should be concerned about.

What is the worrying factor? While the obvious answer to that is the continuation of clown-like strategy calls, the actual answer is tire degradation. The problem of tire wear has been the biggest obstacle in the WDC campaign Ferrari hopes to launch. The tire issue was the reason that a strategy to save a set of soft for the main race in Bahrain was laid out. David Croft shares his worrisome analysis.

Talking during the Sky Sports Podcast, “Alonso’s Podium Fiasco and Will Red Bull Win Every Race, Sky Sports analyst, and commentator, Crofty said, “I had a little chat with someone at Ferrari, and I said did you turn your engines down? Are you okay with the first stint? And Charles was coming through quite nicely, a safety car caught you out a little bit because they pitted before the safety car. I asked, did you turn your engines down after that? And they said, NO. So I went, Oooh. And they went Yess.”

He further added, “So that was their pace on the hard tire. And that is where I would worry if I am Ferrari at the moment. If they were turning the engines down for reliability, then you assume that reliability gets fixed, but if that was their pace at the end, at a track they thought they’d do okay. I think they were suffering tire wear.”

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The overhaul that the Italian team witnessed hasn’t been a game-changer for them yet. And that makes one wonder if firing Mattia Binotto was really the solution.

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The ousted Mattia Binotto was a CTO and the TP at the scarlet team, leading the affairs from the top. However, the man was traded for Fred Vasseur after the 2022 campaign, as he was made into a scapegoat for Ferrari not delivering. However, ex-Renault TP, Flavio Briatore, believes that it may take more than booting one of the most experienced men of Maranello.

Briatore was quoted by Corriere saying, “It often happens: around Maranello there are people who speak during the winter when an in-depth analysis should be made on why you have not won for more than 15 years. We need weight characters in the team, now they are not there.”

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What is your prediction for the scarlet team? Do you think they can turn it around going ahead in the season? Let us know in the comments below.