Maranello - Ferrari is aiming for a return to competitiveness in 2022, with the new F1-75 challenger that was unveiled on Thursday, and which carries the weight of history and expectation for the sport's oldest and most successful team.
The Maranello-based squad has raced in every season of Formula One since the championship was founded in 1950 and has won more races and championships than anyone. The team has also crowned some of the sport's greats including Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher.
But Ferrari’s last champion remains now-retired Kimi Raikkonen who won the title in 2007. Last year the team, despite bouncing back from a dismal 2020 to take third in the constructors' standings, went without a win for the second season in a row.
"Our objective for 2022 certainly is being back to being competitive and being competitive means being capable of winning races," team principal Mattia Binotto told reporters following the car's launch on Thursday.
"That's the way we see it at the moment and I think we will be pretty happy if we will be in that position."
Formula One is introducing its biggest rules shake up in decades, with cars featuring revised aerodynamics and bigger 18-inch wheels aimed at improving the racing spectacle.
The new rules could shake up the established order and Ferrari, who unveiled a stunning new car done up in a red and black livery in a throwback to the past, are clearly eyeing this season as an opportunity.
The word innovation was repeatedly used during the launch of the challenger, designated the F1-75 mark 75 years since founder Enzo Ferrari manufactured the first car to bear his name.
At the same time the new rules are a step into the unknown. But, despite the uncertainty, Binotto and the team's drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz said the team's efforts into developing the car gave them confidence.
"Of course expectations are high because we are Ferrari, we are the team that is expected to win all the time," said Leclerc heading into his fourth season as a Ferrari driver.
"What makes me confident about this year's car is the work that I've seen in the past few months.
"It's never easy to know until you're really on track for the first qualifying of the year and see the final picture.
"But the feeling is good."
Reuters