Ferrari has performed disappointingly in qualifying in the last three races: Engineer Matteo Togninalli reveals where the main problem lies
Even before the season finale in Abu Dhabi, it is clear that Ferrari has secured fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
The Scuderia has recently had major performance problems—not only in the race, but especially in qualifying. Hamilton failed to make it into the top 10 in the last three races, and in Las Vegas and Qatar he was even eliminated in the first part of qualifying. This is a good reason for the Italians to get to the bottom of the difficulties and look for solutions.
“Of course, we spend a lot of time on this, because as I say internally: 90 percent of the work this year is done in qualifying,” admits Matteo Togninalli, head of the track department at Ferrari. “If you look at it, whoever starts at the front finishes the race at the front.”
“Those who start at the back, unless you do something completely different that only works if you’re last, find it extremely difficult to overtake.” In Las Vegas, Hamilton fought his way up to tenth place before benefiting from the disqualification of the McLaren drivers.
Ferrari engineer sees tires as the biggest problem
Why is Ferrari struggling in qualifying? “I think the number one reason is that the tires are extremely sensitive in a single lap this year,” explains Togninalli, recalling Verstappen in Brazil: The Red Bull driver was ahead in sprint qualifying but only finished 16th in qualifying for the race.
“So you can only gain around two to three tenths by preparing the tires in qualifying,” says the experienced engineer. “That’s what we’ve focused on. I think we’ve improved in that area.” However, there have been some unfortunate situations.
Togninalli recalls Hamilton’s unsuccessful Las Vegas qualifying in particular: “That was our mistake, we hit the bollard in the end, yes. When you look at it, these are isolated situations.” Leclerc’s ninth place on the grid also did not reflect his actual performance. “With Charles, we didn’t get the last lap in Q3. I’m sure we could have performed better. If you freeze Q3 qualifying two minutes earlier, it was third place,” emphasizes the Italian. “So we have to put everything together and try to take advantage of opportunities.”
“And again, technically speaking, I think the key factor is the tires,” adds Togninalli. “I think everyone is struggling with that. If you look at it, there’s a lot of variability. We’re all within two tenths. So a small difference makes a big difference.”
Ferrari has not “focused too narrowly”
Depending on the track, in some qualifying sessions all ten cars were within just one-tenth of a second of each other. Curiously, a few years ago Ferrari was particularly strong in qualifying, but then fell behind in the race. Has the team developed too much in the other direction?
“That’s a very good question. We’ve asked ourselves that,” admits Togninalli. “There was certainly a time when our goal was to improve race pace. I think we’ve achieved that. I don’t think we’ve made any drastic decisions or changed anything technically so much that we’ve become extremely one-sided.”
The Ferrari engineer maintains his position that the tires play a decisive role above all else: “Then it depends on where you stand in terms of average performance, whether it’s more visible or less visible,” he explains.
“If you have a car that is four tenths faster than any other, you still have variability, but you are usually in the top three,” says Togninalli, referring primarily to McLaren. “If you are in the midfield with our six cars, you can be P4 or P10 with a 50-millisecond difference. That’s what we’re dealing with right now.”
