Charles Leclerc (R) and Carlos Sainz (L) secured a Ferrari one-two at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Guenther Steiner is one of the unquestionable stars in the latest series of the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive as the maverick boss of habitual strugglers Haas.
In Bahrain, racegoers were just as likely to stop the Italian for a selfie as any drivers on the grid, such is his relatively recently-acquired star status. And he has been smiling from ear to ear.
Haas had a dreadful pre-season in losing their main sponsor, Dmitry Mazepin, because of his close ties to Vladimir Putin and axing his son, Nikita, as their driver. That they found themselves in fifth place at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix raised more than a few eyebrows.
But it also indicated quite where the power lies in Ferrari’s new-for-2022 world order. Haas are powered by the Ferrari engine, as are Alfa Romeo, whose lead driver Valtteri Bottas finished sixth.
Steiner was understandably delighted for the Ferrari renaissance, which has been a long time in coming, not least of all for the impact on his team’s cars.
“They [Ferrari] had to take a lot of s**t from people about it,” said Steiner of Ferrari’s years of struggle. “And they just got back, did their homework and came back with something very good. I think the Ferrari engine is now the best engine.”
It is early days to make such pronouncements, just one race in, but as things stand Ferrari have the quickest and also most reliable engine on the grid.
The positive vibes towards Ferrari in the paddock seemed genuine as they finally made their way back onto the top of the podium for the first time since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix, Max Verstappen quick to congratulate race winner Charles Leclerc in the media pen despite his own Bahrain misery.
In 2019, Ferrari were the best of the rest behind Mercedes and ended the season with 504 points. But there had been whispers that their fuel flow system was not exactly in keeping with the rules. While the details of it have never been made public, they came to a settlement with motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, and a rule tweak came into place for the following season.
It is no coincidence that Ferrari dropped down the pecking order to sixth in 2020 with a paltry 131 points, and effectively branded a national disgrace by an expectant media and public.
And so began the rebuild under Mattia Binotto, who had taken over as team principal the season before. It was decided that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, around whom the team had been built, was now surplus to requirements and Carlos Sainz was brought in. He made an immediate impact by bettering team-mate Leclerc last season.
But the rebuild was carried out largely with 2022 in mind. As Mercedes and Red Bull battled for 2021 glory and, one could argue, slightly took their eye off the ball for this season, Ferrari’s was virtually a singular focus on the new regulations.
The team have never lacked for resources but have been guilty of profligacy in the past. Ironically for a team that railed against the budget cap, it may actually help them by ensuring they need to be more careful with their resources.
When Binotto was asked about the reason for the resurgence, he put it down to mentality. The pit-stops backed that up. In their nadir year, 2020, less than half of all pit-stops were under three seconds; in Bahrain on Sunday, Sainz’s first pit-stop was the pick of the pack at 2.3sec.
And the mood is clearly good within the team. On the grid before the race, the drivers spoke to each other about how good it felt to be back fighting for something. And Leclerc was relaxed enough in the race’s final minutes to joke with his engineers that there was a problem with his engine.
In addition, the drivers have not completely got to grips with the car. Both said it was a handful, while Sainz described it as one of the most worst weekends of his career, despite finishing second.
Binotto, who insists the F1-75 will get quicker, has been at Ferrari long enough to see false dawns, and much depends on car development for the rest of the season.
“When you have a good baseline, you need to make sure that whatever you’re bringing to the car is a step forward,” he said. “And that’s more important now that we’ve got a budget cap. We cannot make it wrong.”
Red Bull are breathing down their necks and will come out fighting in Saudi Arabia this weekend. But Ferrari are back and, as Sainz put it, “where Ferrari should be”.
