An Unpredictable Ferrari
The last weekend at Zandvoort in the Netherlands saw Ferrari struggle throughout the weekend. Circuits that demand high aerodynamic load expose several flaws in the SF-23. The car cannot even afford to run with maximum rear downforce, as it would trigger an unsustainable understeer in terms of balance.
The result was a hard-fought fifth place secured by Carlos Sainz, but even in terms of pace, Alpine, for instance, had the upper hand. Looking at the telemetry, the SF-23 was actually the slowest car through Turn 1, the Tarzan corner. In Qualifying, Charles Leclerc tried to push the limits but ended up hitting the wall due to a combination of oversteer and understeer that essentially sent the SF-23 off track and into the barriers.
In an interview with the BBC, the Monegasque driver explained that the Ferrari SF-23 is truly unpredictable.
Charles Leclerc has always mastered oversteering cars, but in this 2023 season, it’s not just about handling what could be a feature – appreciated by the Monegasque – of an F1 car: “The hardest thing is that I love oversteering cars in general, and this has been a feature of my entire career. The issue with this year’s car was that it wasn’t an oversteering car, but a very unpredictable one. The wind direction affected us much more than our competitors, and of course, going around in circles, you would always find yourself with a tailwind at some point, and it wasn’t a comfortable position to be in. The behavior of the car was impossible to predict.”
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Faced with this issue, Charles Leclerc had to ‘accept’ a bit of understeer, even though he didn’t appreciate this type of behavior from an F1 car: “At the beginning of the season, I struggled quite a bit,” he added. “I had to manage some understeer to reduce the ‘percentage’ of unpredictability, and this isn’t what you want, nor the balance I like the most because it doesn’t fit my driving style. We worked on it. We had a good reaction. We made a big step forward in this aspect, and now we just need to increase performance and continue working on this weak point to improve the car.” – the Ferrari man concluded.
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