Scuderia Ferrari 2017 Season Review

At the end of a 20-race season-long F1 calendar we analyse the Scuderia’s performances over the 2017 season.

After a winless and difficult year in 2016, Ferrari turned things around and were the most competitive of any other team to take the fight to the dominant Mercedes since the 1.6L V6 turbocharged hybrids came into force in 2014. The SF70H was Ferrari’s most successful car during the 1.6L V6 hybrid era to date racking up five victories from Sebastian Vettel and finishing runner up in the Constructors Championship on 522 points.

Vettel could have made Lewis Hamilton’s fourth World Driver’s Championship quest extra harder over the final races. The fact remains that the title challenging slip rests in both German’s hands and the team’s hands.

In winter testing, very few expected that Ferrari would be more threatening to the Silver Arrows than Red Bull. But consistent and strong performances by the SF70H racers in testing gave promising signs to the Tifosi.

The Prancing Horse sorted their problems and re-emerged with a much better package, which propelled them back into contention as Ferrari drew first blood by winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park and ended their 10-year drought in Melbourne. Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was hounded by Vettel’s strategy as the German jumped him to take the honours of the top step of the podium in 2017. Mercedes fears and Ferrari’s promising signs were recognised.

Ferrari produced a good all-round race car in the SF70H which worked well in all conditions, with one it’s key points coming from tyre performance and having a shorter wheelbase. The downside was they did not have the best qualifying car or down the long straights. But the SF70H thrived on circuits with shorter straights such as Monaco and the Hungaroring.

Over the first six races of the 20-round calendar, Vettel won three times (Melbourne already mentioned, Bahrain and Monaco) whereas Mercedes three victories were split between Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton.

A couple of slip ups took place in Vettel’s championship quest with one where the four-time champion threw away a chance of a win in Baku after colliding twice with Hamilton under the second Safety Car deployment as the German received a 10-second stop and go penalty for his troubles and was lucky to escape a race ban and the other in Silverstone where punctures plagued both Ferrari’s of Vettel and Räikkönen in the final three laps. Räikkönen finished third and Vettel seventh and this put the German’s title-lead down to one point after Hamilton took victory at his home Grand Prix.

Vettel added another victory in Hungary and continued to lead the Driver’s Championship as the sport headed to the summer break as Ferrari were on course to return to glory.

When F1 returned from its month hiatus, things changed as Vettel and Ferrari faltered with Bottas and Hamilton collecting more wins for the Silver Arrows. Hamilton took a hattrick of victories in Belgium, Ferrari’s home race at Monza where he captured the championship lead and in Singapore with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen breaking Hamilton’s streak in Malaysia.

Ferrari’s Asian collapse began in Singapore with a reverse in fortunes. Vettel claimed pole position ahead of team-mate Räikkönen, the two Red Bulls and Hamilton fifth as the German was clear favourite to take the win. Ferrari lost both SF70H racers in a first lap crash with Verstappen while Hamilton claimed his most surprising victory.

Aside from the Scuderia’s aforementioned punctures at Silverstone, Ferrari had a strong record of finishing races. Ferrari’s power-units struck reliability issues in Malaysia and Suzuka, which effectively destroyed Vettel’s championship hopes while Mercedes took advantage of the Prancing Horse’s woes with its bulletproof reliability.

Hamilton and Mercedes went on to secure their fourth Driver’s and Constructors Championships respectively with the Briton securing it with two races to spare in Mexico and the Silver Arrows a race earlier in Texas.

Vettel won the penultimate round in Brazil while team-mate Räikkönen finished in third and in the season-finale at Abu Dhabi both SF70H racers of Vettel and Räikkönen came home a distant third and fourth respectively.

2017 Driver Stats

2017 Team Stats

Driver and Team Reaction

Sebastian Vettel: The results have been worse than they could have been, but in the end, we weren’t strong enough,” Vettel explained. “However, it’s against the spirit of Ferrari to give up. I am sure we have a lot of things to improve and the people are very motivated. So, I am looking forward to next season. We had our chances and we took them, but we also made little mistakes here and there and I am sure they won’t happen anymore. I think we didn’t lose the Championship in any particular race; you just race and collect all the points, and in our case, we didn’t have enough. I promise to push next year and do my best together with the whole team, and then we’ll see. This year we improved massively on the car; the chassis has been really strong since the first day. We made some major steps on the engine, but we still need to find some more power compared to our competitors. However, the most important thing is to focus on where we want to be as a team.”

Kimi Räikkönen: “Overall this year we would have liked to do a lot better, as we had a pretty strong package; we just need to fix and minimize all the issues. Next year, it will be a different story with a different car, and we’ll start from zero. We want to improve in all areas and go faster.”

Maurizio Arrivabene: “The whole team, here and at Maranello, gave its best as usual. Now we’re already looking forward, with humility and determination, and we’re fully focused on 2018.”

More season reviews to come when I return from holiday.