Charles Leclerc is back in the Maranello simulator to work on the SF-23 car that will be seen on track at the Baku City Circuit for the next round of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign. Ferrari is making the maximum effort to get out of a very difficult start to the season: the Scuderia is fourth in the Constructors’ championship and has not yet secured a podium in three races held.
F1 will be back on track in two Sundays with the Azerbaijan GP after a one-month break which should have allowed the Maranello Racing Department to intervene on the SF-23 car with an updates’ program which will be completed with the Spanish GP, scheduled to take place on 4 June in Barcelona.
Meanwhile in Baku, a street track that combines a very fast straight with the one slow in the part of the track designed in the old city, we should only see the solutions that had already been decided upon at the start of development: the unloaded rear wing and the adjustment of the front flaps to ensure the necessary balance at high speeds.
The Azerbaijan appointment will host the first of the six Sprint races of the 2026 Formula 1 season and will be held with the format that reduces free practice to just one session, the one on the Friday before qualifying. The timed session will serve to define the Sunday GP grid, while the Saturday race line-up should be decided by a new mini-qualifying session.
In such a tight format, bringing technical innovations can be a great risk, even if there are those who push for Ferrari to have as many updates as possible. It remains to be seen whether in Maranello they will have the courage to introduce an aerodynamic package that would therefore arrive earlier than expected: more hollowed out sidepods in the lower part to increase the opening under the radiator vents and the flow rate on the sidewalk.
Nothing to do with the redesigned sidepods that will be discovered at Montmelò, but a step forward that required partially revising the cooling system of 066/7: the radiant masses are the usual ones, but some ducts and tubs had to be moved.
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Will the technical staff directed by Enrico Cardile have the courage to bring these updates in Baku or will they prefer to wait for an appointment where there will be the possibility of doing comparative tests with at least two free practice sessions?
According to Motorsport Italy, Charles Leclerc has also tried this more advanced configuration on the simulator, which would have given positive numbers, but remembering the enthusiasm with which he expected the SF-23 before the winter pre-season testing session, it is better not to get too excitied for the data and see if the Ferrari Racing Division are ready to take risks with solutions that will have little, very little time to be evaluated.
It cannot be ruled out that two different Ferrari cars will be seen in free practice, if the idea is to anticipate the timing of updates, bearing in mind that the factory has worked very hard to shorten the time of introduction for the advanced solutions.
All attention is focused on the next round on the track: the political defeat for the failure to review the result of the Australian GP is behind us. Carlos Sainz commented on his state of mind on social media…
“I am very disappointed because the FIA did not grant us the right to review. Two weeks later, I believe that the penalty is disproportionate and that it would have been correct to reopen the case on the basis of the new evidence that we have presented. We must all continue to work together so that some dynamics improve in the future ”.
“The consistency of penalties and the ways in which they are established or not have been much discussed topics for several seasons now and clarity is needed for the good of our sport. Anyway what happened in Australia is now a thing of the past and I’m 100% focused on the next race in Baku.”
Someone in Maranello claims that Ferrari wanted to demonstrate to the Spanish driver that the team defended him in front of everything and everyone, but a prestigious team like the Maranello one should protect itself from certain embarrassments.
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