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Ferrari finished third in the constructors' championship of the F1 2021 season. Considering how the 2020 F1 season had transpired for the team, finishing third in the championship was not bad by any means. However, for a team with the kind of history that Ferrari possesses and a lack of championship wins in recent years, it's hard to be content with just a third place in the standings.
Team principal Mattia Binotto alluded to the same in a recent interview where he admitted that it hurt to see other teams winning the races. The Italian constructor will be looking to get back to winning ways in 2022 and, in this piece, we look at why the team might win the championship this season.
Ferrari switched resources to 2022 much earlier than Mercedes and Red Bull
Ferrari had a clear objective for 2021. They wanted to secure some semblance of respectability for their season after a horrible one last year. Concurrently though, the team was quite focused on not compromising in any way on the new set of regulations in 2022.
The Maranello-based team was one of the earliest teams to stop developing their 2021 challengers as they shifted their focus to the 2022 season. Being one of the most resource-rich teams in F1 alongside Mercedes and Red Bull enabled the Prancing Horse to take to the transition early. While the other two teams were battling for the title, Italian team switching resources to 2022 might just prove to be a key differentiator for the team.
A competitive driver lineup in Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz was one of the surprises of the F1 2021 season. When the team signed the Spaniard, he was expected to be the supporting cast for the exceptional talent of Charles Leclerc. By the end of their first season together, however, Sainz had proved capable of equaling Leclerc.
In Leclerc and Sainz, the Scuderia has a combination that is fast, reliable, and hungry for success. To add to this, the drivers complement each other very well and this helped the team beat McLaren in 2021. In a set of regulations where cars could be in proximity to each other in terms of pace, the impact made by the two drivers will play a key role in Ferrari's challenge.
Ferrari sounds confident for the first time in three years
Ferrari's power unit and its improvement over the 2021 season caught everyone's eye. Their overhauled engine unit was comparatively slower than the rest of the field at the start. Throughout the season, however, it saw improvements as the team got closer to the performance outputs of some of the best on the grid.
The team has been giving positive updates as well in the off-season. Binotto claimed that the new car and power unit will not be lacking in terms of innovation. Expecting the team to get it all together after being on the sidelines for the last two years should not come as a surprise following the 2022 regulations.
It is also encouraging to see the team sound confident about its prospects as compared to the last three seasons, where the team openly played down its championship prospects.
