“It was not a choice” - Ferrari stopped developing their car to avoid becoming Red Bull

As the 2022 F1 season comes to a close, we see Ferrari gradually falling behind. The Maranello-based team was well in the fight for both the Constructors' and Drivers' Championship. Unfortunately, they lost both to Red Bull following several strategic blunders and an overall slower car.

After the 2022 F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, Mattia Binotto revealed how Ferrari have stopped developing this year's cars as the team has reached the cost cap limit. The team has hit its financial ceiling, making it one of the prime reasons why the F1-75 looked slow in the past few races.

Binotto said:

“It was not a choice; we simply finished the money for the budget cap. So simply we were at the cap. [There was] no more opportunity of developing the car, so we simply stick where we were.”

The halt in Ferrari's car development also allowed Mercedes to catch up and start stealing podium finishes. Mattia Binotto, however, believes that his team will come back stronger in the 2023 F1 season as they didn't compromise on next year's car.

He said:

“Obviously we didn't compromise next year's car development. But certainly we decided to stop the current one, because on top of this normal development on the current [car], you will need to produce the parts to bring them on track. And that was the extra costs that we couldn't afford.”

As everyone in F1 knows, Red Bull were handed a hefty penalty for breaching the 2021 F1 season's cost cap. Although Max Verstappen won the Drivers' Championship after an intense battle with Lewis Hamilton, it was revealed that the team poured extra money into the car development.

After the news broke in the paddock, teams became even more conscious about cost caps and how dangerous it is to breach them.

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Ferrari defended their strategy calls during 2022 F1 Brazilian GP qualifying

During the 2022 F1 Brazilian GP qualifying session, Ferrari put intermediate tires on Charles Leclerc's F1-75 while every other driver was on dry soft tires.

This was because the team predicted rain during the Q3 session, which never came. After the session, Laurent Mekies, the team's Racing Director, defended their strategy calls, mentioning how intense and difficult it was for other teams as well.

He said:

"It was a difficult qualifying as it was very, very intense for all teams, it was the sort of qualifying where you need to make a lot of calls. Some of the ones we made worked, some of them worked less."

It is no secret that Ferrari haven't been at the top of their game when it comes to strategies. The Italian outfit has made several mistakes during the 2022 F1 season that cost them race wins and points and the championships.