"I'm happy to be back competing at the highest level" - Ferrari president upbeat about team's success but cautions 'the season has just begun’

Ferrari president John Elkann praised the hard work by the team that has led to a competitive start to the 2022 season. The Italian-American gave credit to the work that has gone on behind the scenes in the last two years and wishes to witness the result in Imola.

Praising Ferrari’s resurgence to the front of the grid, Elkann said:

“Two years ago we declared that we would have to work hard to get back to being competitive - underlined the President - and after two difficult seasons the 2022 Championship has started in an exciting way. Like all our fans around the world, I am happy to be back competing at the highest level.”

Ferrari’s dominant start to the season has been encouraging and shown signs of hard work at Maranello paying off. Elkann addressed his Exor stakeholders a month ago, giving credit to the structural changes and reorganization of the team that led to a promising result in 2021.

Looking forward to the race at Imola in the home country, Elkann said:

“That said, we know that the season has only just begun and that in Formula 1 we are always surrounded by fierce competitors. We have to work tirelessly as a team to optimize every aspect of our performance. This is the spirit and approach that I can’t wait to see at Imola and throughout the season.”

The Prancing Horse finished sixth in the 2020 season and managed to surge to third in 2021. Their dominant start and extensive lead at the start of the 2022 season have drawn praise even from their rivals. With the next race in Imola, one can expect a sea of ‘Tifosi’ cheering the Italian outfit into another victory.

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Ferrari not bringing any significant upgrades to Imola

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has denied bringing any significant upgrades to the Imola GP. The Italian revealed they will be bringing minor updates to optimize their current performance deficit and address porpoising issues. Major significant upgrades to the car, however, will be brought in later in the season.

Speaking to Motorsport Network, the Ferrari team principal said:

“I think it will be a difficult weekend in respect of bringing updates and trying to evaluate them in the Friday practice, because you need obviously to focus yourself on the quali of the afternoon. If we will look at ourselves, there will not be much in Imola because again, we believe it will not be the right place.”

Revealing the smaller upgrades they will bring to Imola, Binotto said:

“But we will try to mitigate the issues we have got still so far. I’m thinking of the porpoising and the bouncing that has affected our performance over the weekend. So we again try to work on that specific point. But, for the upgrades and more, let me say significant ones, it will be for later on in the season.”

While the Prancing Horse outfit has delayed its significant upgrades to later in the season, their rivals Red Bull F1 team have confirmed they will be bringing updates to Imola. The Maranello team's unparalleled reliability, however, is an area where Red Bull fall behind and have their fair share of work cut out in resolving their reliability issues.