Although Ferrari have been one of the most outspoken teams about not yet shifting its focus to next year’s challenger. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has announced that Ferrari has not only already started looking at 2017’s car but have begun work on their 2018 Formula One project.
Ferrari last won a drivers’ title in 2007 with Kimi Räikkönen, with 2008 being the last time the Scuderia was on top in the Constructors’ Championship. In a bid to end this long eight-year wait, Ferrari has already got small teams working on their Formula One projects for the next two years. This does not mean that Ferrari has given up on 2016 – as Arrivabene has been insistent on – or have changed their focus to looking at 2017 like Renault, but merely that they are spreading out their resources to try and get ahead of the field to gain the advantage needed to clinch the elusive title.
Ferrari’s 2016 campaign started off strong, alike their 2015 one, but so far in this season the Italian outfit has yet to produce the weekend that takes them to the top step. Ferrari showed strong engine development last year and looked to be doing the same this year in the opening stages of the season. But with only three of their engine tokens left for the next 12 races this could be where Ferrari loses their edge. Next year, engine tokens are being removed and so there will be more freedom for in-season engine development in hopes to bring the engine battle closer together and make races more exciting.
Arrivabene stated once again that Ferrari’s focus was still solely on 2016, claiming that the gap to Mercedes was still “quite big”. The Ferrari team principal still believes that Ferrari can take the fight to Mercedes this season showing that this is why the Scuderia will not switch full focus to next year’s car for the time being.
However, there is a “different methodology” to work in Ferrari this year, so whilst the main focus is on the 2016 project there are two smaller groups that are looking at the 2017 and 2018 projects already, with strong focus on the engine and the new regulations that come in for next season. Even though these two ‘mini groups’ are looking ahead, the team still remained fully focused on their 2016 campaign.
“When you’re going to win, we are going up to the sky because I’m very emotional, I’m passionate,” Arrivabene stated when talking about Ferrari’s performance in the opening nine rounds of the season.
“But in this role, you have to forget about this, you have to keep calm, look at the season and the next races and keep the team motivated. I’ve always said I don’t trust bad luck or good luck, but I think we have a big debt not with luck but with us.”
