“Everyone copies the Red Bull, but no one copies the Ferrari”- F1 teams do not know why the Prancing Horse is so fast

Ferrari's pace is something that has surprised and perplexed all the teams on the grid, according to German F1 journalist Michael Schmidt.

This is evident due to the fact that many teams have tried to copy Red Bull's design but no one has tried to take a page out of Ferrari's book in 2022.

Speaking on his program Formel Schmidt from Auto Motor und Sport, the German said:

“Ferrari has a very good car. What surprises me is that everybody copies the Red Bull, but nobody copies the Ferrari. That shows that no team knows why the Ferrari is so fast.”

Schmidt also claimed that Mercedes believes Ferrari's pace advantage is due to its floor flexing. Speaking with one eye on the 2022 F1 Belgian GP that will be held after the summer break, he said:

“Mercedes suspect that, but they also suspect that Red Bull is doing something with the floor. We will find out in Spa. In my opinion, in terms of performance level, not much will change.”

There are still two races to be run between now and the Belgian GP, at Le Castellet and Hungaroring. The Scuderia's main focus in those two rounds will be to get on top of its reliability issues. The Prancing Horse's 2022 Power Unit has let the works team down as well its customers Alfa Romeo and Haas this season.

Speaking about the engine issues and the possible solutions coming out of Maranello, Schmidt added:

“At the moment it doesn’t look like Ferrari has a solution to the engine problems. Even if they do, it will take time to implement. The current engines from the pool still have the same problem.”

Schmidt feels Mattia Binotto and Co. are adopting the same approach as Mercedes in 2021 where they try to extract the full potential of their PU and not worry about the possibility of penalties. It remains to be seen if that approach will pay dividends for the Scuderia at the end of the season.

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Carlos Sainz's 2022 F1 Austrian GP DNF 'very big loss' for Ferrari in title battle with Red Bull

Carlos Sainz believes that his retirement from the 2022 F1 Austrian GP was a heavy loss of points for Ferrari in the championship battle against Red Bull.

The Spaniard looked destined for a podium finish and even a possible one-two finish with teammate Charles Leclerc in P1 when his car caught on fire in a horrific manner.

The F1-75 has already been plagued with multiple reliability issues that have been the team's Achilles Heel in the championship race against Red Bull. Charles Leclerc had to retire while leading in both Barcelona and Baku.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the dramatic implosion, Carlos Sainz claimed that there was no data to suggest a power failure of that magnitude was incoming. The 27-year-old said:

“There was no feedback coming from the engine that this was about to happen. Very sudden, and yeah, a bit lost for words because it’s obviously a big, big loss on points on a huge result for a team – I think it would have been an easy one-two today.”

When asked to share his assessment of the damage to his charred car, Sainz said:

“Well, fire, a lot of fire, a lot of damage for sure, which is not ideal and something that we will keep need to look in at. At least today, the pace was there, the degradation was very low on our car, we were fast. So yeah, I will take it and turn the page as soon as possible.”

Given the state of his PU, Carlos Sainz will probably have to take a slew of penalties that come with new parts for the forthcoming 2022 F1 French GP or resort to using an older PU from the start of the season.

The latter seems less likely, given the team's track record and the fact that even Leclerc had to bite that bullet during the 2022 F1 Canadian GP.