formula 1
Longing for a title: Mercedes and Ferrari are looking for a connection
Things are not going well for Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc. photo
© Scott Barbour/AP/dpa
Everything points to a march through by Max Verstappen. Can anyone stop the Formula 1 world champion this season? The competition takes refuge in perseverance slogans.
What should the powerful Ferrari boss John Elkann have said differently when he recently spoke at the shareholders’ meeting. “Our goal is and remains to win the world championship title,” said the president of the Italian luxury car manufacturer.
The longing for the top of Formula 1 is great for the Reds from Maranello, but they were only world champions in the end when they failed. It’s been 16 years since Kimi Räikkönen last driver’s title, against the dominant defending champion Max Verstappen in his overpowering Red Bull, the Scuderia seems to have just as few resources this season as with Mercedes.
The traditional racing teams don’t want to give up hope completely, after all, just three of the 23 season races have been completed. However, it is unlikely that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday (1 p.m. / Sky) will change the impression that champion Verstappen can only beat himself on the way to title number three. The Dutch World Championship leader is in the best car, the 25-year-old did not make any serious mistakes with two wins and a second place this year.
Russell confident
“We’ve made more progress in the last two or three weeks than during the entire winter break, so we’re definitely going in the right direction,” said Mercedes driver George Russell meanwhile. At the beginning of the season, the Silver Arrows’ car was quite a bad design that simply couldn’t keep up. A lot of work was therefore necessary to design a more powerful car. According to the factory team, the three-week break since the race in Australia, in which record world champion Lewis Hamilton drove his Mercedes in second place behind Verstappen, was used to make progress.
“I think we’re going to see some major changes soon, which will hopefully result in better lap times,” said Briton Russell. Is that enough to attack Verstappen? Open.
In any case, it hurts the 25-year-old that his team is lagging behind Red Bull for the second year in a row. “I don’t always look at what’s being reported about Mercedes. But of course we’re in Formula 1 to fight for wins and titles and we just don’t do that at the moment,” he told f1.com.
While the permanent world champion team from 2014 to 2021 at least got a podium place, Ferrari has so far received nothing. Vice world champion Charles Leclerc recently had to get out of his defective company car prematurely in Melbourne. Rumors about the departure of the frustrated Monegasque after this season have been circulating for weeks, but according to the 25-year-old they are unfounded. “I love Ferrari – and I want to win races with Ferrari,” said five-time Grand Prix winner Leclerc.
Efforts at Maranello
The number one at the Scuderia has the same dream as Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso before. They all wanted to race to the title in red. But only Schumacher managed to do that and shaped an era after Kerpener, nobody met the high expectations anymore. Also because Ferrari often robbed itself of opportunities. A car that is too weak, a lack of consistency, the wrong tactics or driving mistakes: since Räikkönen’s triumph in 2007, they have never been lucky over an entire season.
“We worked hard in Maranello on the development of the SF-23,” said team boss Fred Vasseur about the efforts of the past few weeks. The Italians also want to bring improvements to their car in the coming weeks in order to close the gap to Red Bull.
Of course, they were not idle either. “Hopefully we’ll also bring a few upgrades and can stay at the top,” said World Cup runner-up Sergio Perez in Baku, trying an old racing driver’s wisdom: “What you’ve done in the past doesn’t matter.”