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 outright pace, but it’s also worth noting that, earlier in the season, they overtook 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 shortened tire life and Red Bull had made a big profit, but Ferrari doesn’t see it that way. Instead, we attribute the shorter life of the tire 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, who damaged the tyres.
“Honestly, I think it’s a misunderstanding,” said Jock Clear, Ferrari’s senior performance engineer, referring to the team’s impression that the tire degradation has gotten worse.
“I think what we struggled with was the extreme pace. In the first 12-13 races of the year, both drivers were able to match Red Bull.”
“Red Bull closed the gap a bit by two tenths of a second, so we didn’t get pole position, so we were catching up a bit.”
“And of course, if you really try to race a car that’s faster than you are, I think that shows in the tire degradation, so I don’t think it was a big deal for us.”
Jock Clear believes that in races where Ferrari and Red Bull performed exactly the same, there was very 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 Red Bull, who sadly had a slightly faster car.”
“I used the tires a little too much, just to hold 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 a thing . I will not do that.
“So you use the tires a little too much and pay the price in one long stint.”
After losing the F1 world championship to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc believes better managing tire management is just as important as improving reliability and strategy for 2023.
“At one point in the season we had reliability problems and then we paid the price with penalties and other things,” said Charles Leclerc during the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
“I think we’ve made too many strategy mistakes at certain points in the season, and in terms of tire management, we haven’t been 100% consistent enough.
“Abu Dhabi was a good race, but we had some very bad races and I don’t think we have figured out how to always manage the tires well yet.
“Those are three important aspects that we are focusing on right now.”
