A bitter certainty emerged from the 2023 Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: at the moment, Ferrari is the fourth fastest car on the grid in this start of the Formula 1 championship.
Something difficult to imagine until a month ago, when the Maranello team was approaching the new season with great optimism, presenting the SF-23 as a single-seater “unprecedented in terms of speed”- words from the CEO, Benedetto Vigna.
In fact, the Maranello team has not been able to solve the problems that have afflicted its performance in the recent past: that of reliability, tire wear and the lack of propensity to adopt winning strategies. Giorgio Terruzzi spoke of this and more in his usual analysis for Il Corriere della Sera. We offer you an extract of his view.
Giorgio Terruzzi’s analysis
“Fourth fastest car on the grid. Behind Red Bull, as expected; behind Aston Martin, as already seen, behind Mercedes in Saudi Arabia. The news is very worrying because we are talking about a car – Mercedes precisely – treated as a repeated and incredible error by their own technicians”, admits Terruzzi in his analysis for the well-known Italian newspaper.
He then underlined that a further element of concern at Ferrari is that Carlos Sainz, to date, precedes Charles Leclerc by 14 points in the Drovers standings: “It doesn’t help the serenity within the team and, as the first signs of impatience emerged in race two “.
Instead, focusing on the Italian team’s project, he states: “The Ferrari picture is an out-of-focus image. All right, it took some time, more will be needed. But expectations were higher ahead of this race, as were they were very high ahead of the debut in Bahrain. And now, in an inflation of the verb «to work» the break between the third and fourth round (three weeks in April) is seen as a useful moment to start pronouncing different words in front of more comforting performances. In the meantime, it doesn’t seem to have just questions of set-up and reliability”.
In this regard, the journalist focuses his attention on the strategy implemented by the Ferrari pit wall: “Once again we had red cars in crisis with hard tires without at least one attempt to change things, perhaps by fitting Charles Leclerc on the medium ones, as the Monegasque started with the soft tyres. A strategic call that still signals some trouble, even in the absence of counter-evidence, excluding Mercedes, for example, which diversified strategies it has put on track”.
The question remains just like in the end of 2022: what prevents Ferrari from expressing its high potential in the race? While waiting for answers to be found, the picture is not the most encouraging, to put it mildly. “The handicap seems chronic, therefore frightening, thinking about the past as well as the future, breaks included. And now, the perception of an incurable issue overwhelms the mind of Leclerc, who appeared confised the Arab race. We could see bewilderment and discouragement, vainly masked by a veil of hope. As if Charles struggles to keep this hope”, says Terruzzi.
