The Spanish Grand Prix was an important event for Scuderia Ferrari. It couldn’t and shouldn’t have been the turning point because a single package of upgrades cannot cure all the weak points of a car. However, the Spanish weekend was still an opportunity for the Maranello-based team to seek answers.
The expectations were set on a track that has often been described as an open-air tunnel, especially in its previous configuration, with the slow chicane that tested the suspension department of the cars, requiring a compromise to meet the numerous challenges of the circuit. It is a complex track that highlighted the shortcomings of the SF-23, a car that does not have a magical position and clearly still needs to grow in order to consistently fight for second place among the constructors.
Although the 20-second gap to the first-place Mercedes at the finish line was surprising, the “resurgence” of the Silver Arrows was not entirely unexpected. In previous races, the W14 had shown its ability to handle fast corners and front-limited tracks. These indications were confirmed even with the “upgraded” version of the German car, which almost presented an opposite scenario to the Italian car. Since Melbourne, the SF-23 has changed its nature, proving competitive in slow corners but lacking in the fast sections.
Furthermore, beyond the usual difficulties in qualifying, the W14 has often shown an upward trajectory during the race weekend, culminating in strong performances during the race itself, even beating Ferrari in the long run, as seen in Miami. The Catalan race seems to fit into the fluctuating hierarchy behind Red Bull, which characterized the first part of the season, with Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin ready to fight for the role of the second force. Barcelona also lacked the benchmark provided by the Silverstone team, which had positioned itself as a sort of leveler to judge the other two teams in recent races.
It’s an up-and-down ride, often depending on the characteristics of the track and the strengths of the cars: the Azerbaijan Grand Prix serves as a prime example for Ferrari. Carlos Sainz did not hide the fact that the Spanish package would be aimed at “improving performance in medium-low-speed corners,” an aspect that should provide “a different working window for the car” according to the plans of the Prancing Horse.
From this point of view, the Barcelona examination provided some positive numbers because the SF-23 did not disappoint in the slower sections. However, especially in the race, this was not enough to compensate for the lack of flexibility over long distances and the aerodynamic deficiencies that become apparent in the fast zones. Although slightly different, this scenario is not far from what was already seen in Miami, with the aggravation that in Spain, difficulties in tire management and in the faster sections weighed more heavily, widening the gap from the second force of the weekend compared to the United States GP.
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Taking Sainz as a reference, who started from second position, it can be observed that the Spaniard did not experience a significant time drop per lap, indicating an attempt to maintain a consistent pace to limit tire degradation. The crucial aspect was not being able to match the pace of the Mercedes when Sainz was asked to improve his rhythm to have a safety window of about three seconds over Lewis Hamilton, preventing the Englishman from attempting an undercut.
Already after about ten laps, the Ferrari driver experienced signs of graining on the front tires, and on a track where the front-end is a key factor, managing this phenomenon can significantly penalize the pace. Moreover, the Prancing Horse’s car often struggled to clear the graining, which is also a part of the narrow usage window that engineers will need to work on.
Taking the telemetry data from the twelfth lap as an example, it can be seen that Carlos Sainz was unable to keep up with the seven-time Formula One world champion in the fast zones, such as turn nine or the final sector, having to take a longer line to avoid excessive stress on the left front tire where the graining appeared. However, this issue was not only present in the first stint on the softer compound but also in the second and third parts of the race.
After each pit stop, which was even anticipated to avoid being undercut by opponents, the new tires partially helped compensate for these deficiencies in the fast sections but never managed to match the performance of the Mercedes, even when the latter remained on used tires. As the laps went by, the advantage given by the new tires diminished, making it inevitable for the Silver Arrows to overtake.
“Our high-speed performance hasn’t been good since the beginning of the season. Since Australia, we have been struggling with balance, bounces, and many other things that happen at high speeds. So yes, we want to focus on this aspect and see if we can improve it because, as you have seen, low speeds are not bad for us at all,” Carlos Sainz explained after qualifying, where the weaknesses of the SF-23 had already emerged, albeit partially masked by the softer tire compound in that case.
These concepts were also reiterated at the end of the race: “We know that our race pace and fast corners are our weak points. On a high-degradation circuit and in a two-stop race, we tried to manage everything by trying to achieve the objectives for the stints, but in some cases, we couldn’t reach the goal.”
“Honestly, I spent the entire race managing the tires because we know they are very hard, and with this high-degradation circuit, I couldn’t push.”
While it is true that the Spanish package needs to be understood and optimized, the new sidepods and floor have not eliminated the issues of the previous car configuration, which weighed more heavily at Barcelona than on other tracks.
When we combine this with the unpredictability described by the drivers, partly resulting from the extreme bouncing experienced in Monte Carlo, and the inconsistency of the SF-23 sometimes shown in different phases of the race, as was the case in the Spanish Grand Prix, for the Maranello team it becomes clear which areas require more intervention on the car.
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