2023 Azerbaijan GP: new rear wing for Ferrari. Alpine and McLaren with upgrade packages

This year, Scuderia Ferrari returns to Azerbaijan in a completely different state of form: fourth in the constructors’ championship, fifth and tenth in the drivers’ championship after three very disappointing races in terms of performance and reliability for the Maranello team.

Frederic Vasseur announced a few weeks ago that some upgrades would be brought forward, and at Baku City circuit we will see the Ferrari SF-23 with lower-load wings suitable for a circuit that requires a lot of aerodynamic efficiency while waiting for more substantial upgrades that will be introduced in the upcoming races, also taking into consideration the fact that the Azerbaijan GP will take place based on the new sprint format with two qualifying sessions.

Many teams will have upgrades and adjustments to their wings, including Scuderia Ferrari, between this weekend and the next races. Besides Mercedes, which will begin to evolve its W14 with mechanical and cooling innovations with the goal of becoming the second fastest car on the grid, Alpine aims to reduce the gap with a few tenths from the Aston Martin, Mercedes, and Ferrari group thanks to the first of the packages in the upcoming races.

Pat Fry described the package as a “reasonable step forward,” with developments focusing on the floor area and other parts of aerodynamic and mechanical nature.

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McLaren suffered from poor efficiency with the first version of the MCL60 in the first three races of the 2023 Formula One campaign. Despite having a good amount of load, the English car never seemed to be able to challenge Alpine’s pace on Saturday or Sunday. Thanks mainly to a new floor, the drivers and engineers in Woking have put a lot of faith in the “second version” of the MCL60 to take a big step forward and find themselves constantly fighting for the points zone, and perhaps something more. This weekend in Baku we will have a first feedback on the track regarding these steps forward, as explained by F1 expert Andrea Vergani for formu1a.uno.

The Sprint Race format determined some teams to postpone planned upgrades to optimize the setup during the first and only free practice session in Baku, including Mercedes and Haas, who will start the actual development program for the 2023 Formula One season in Miami, a Grand Prix which will take place next week (May 5-7).