After three races have been completed, Ferrari has proved to be the dominant team to beat this season.

The Maranello-based team caught the attention of rival teams Mercedes and Red Bull early on in winter testing by setting the majority of the fastest times throughout both testing sessions. After Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc secured two victories out of three races of the season so far, the Scuderia has managed to carry over their momentum and consistency from testing proving that their hard work is far from a fluke. 

The  Australian Grand Prix provided a mix of highs and lows for Ferrari as Leclerc led the team to victory with his fourth F1 career win for the Scuderia while teammate Carlos Sainz’s spun out on lap 2 of the race which lead to a DNF. However, despite Leclerc and Sainz’s polar opposite results at Albert Park, Ferrari remains at the top of the constructors' standings. The Maranello-based team leads by a significant margin with 104 points, to that of Mercedes which has 65 points, and Red Bull with a total of 55 points after only three races have been concluded this season.

Speaking after the race, Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto discussed the Scuderia's unexpected success at the start of the season, the reliability of the F1-75, and the time frame regarding when they will bring the latest tech upgrades to their 2022 challenger. 

Binotto admitted that he is surprised by the teams’ strong results so early in the season. The Italian team boss also revealed that the team has put a remarkable amount of hard work into prioritizing the 2022 season to ensure that their F1-75 challenger was competitive.

“Yes, I’m certainly surprised,” said Binotto. “I think we worked hard and put a lot of priority on 2022. I knew the team was a great team and we improved ourselves compared to the past seasons, and I was hoping to have a competitive car by the start of the season.

“Then, coming to winter testing, we knew we had a competitive car but certainly I was not expecting such a good car to start the season; it would be unfair to think that. But I still believe the difference between us and our competitors can be very little, as we’ve seen over the past weeks, and we should have great fights in the next races.”

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix of Imola is the next race on the F1 schedule and it will also host the first sprint race of the season. Binotto divulged that the bustling schedule during the Imola race weekend does not present an ideal time to introduce some of the major new upgrades for the F1-75.    

“It will be a difficult weekend in terms of bringing upgrades and running them in the Friday practice because you need to focus your set-up on the quali in the afternoon,” he stated.

“If we look at ourselves, there will not be [many upgrades] in Imola because it will not be the right place. We’ve tried to mitigate, shall I say, the issue we’ve got still so far – the porpoising and the bouncing – that has affected our performance over the weekend, so we try to work on that specific point.

“But with the upgrades, the more significant ones will be later on in the season.”

Some of the major teams have been struggling with reliability issues such as the current world championship title defender Red Bull. The Milton Keynes-based team produced two DNFs in the season opener in Bahrain and one DNF during the Australian Grand Prix. However, Binotto emphasized the crucial importance of reliability and how the team specifically focused on race set-ups for the F1-75.

“Reliability is part of the performance I think… To finish first, first you need to finish, so reliability is a key element. As a team, we put a priority on it with the set-up for the races – it is part of the game.

“At the end of the season, will that be a factor? Certainly it will be. All the elements need to be properly in place to win a championship.”