Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has highlighted the SF-23’s most significant issue after the Mexican GP. The Maranello team address it for the next year; otherwise, they might face another challenging Formula 1 season.
The Monegasque driver secured his 22nd career pole position at the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, the fourth in 2023. Yet, on none of the occasions when he started from the front row did Charles Leclerc manage to secure a victory.
This raises the spontaneous question: Is the SF-23 stronger in qualifying than in the race? The answer has been known for months, and it’s affirmative. However, it’s challenging to determine how much the competitiveness margin varies from session to session.
“The SF-23 is ‘peaky’; what does it mean?”
The only conclusion we can draw, partly from Charles Leclerc’s statements (which we will analyze shortly), is that this year’s Ferrari car can be described as “peaky.”
This adjective comes from the main term “peak,” which means the highest point. Thus, defining a single-seater as “peaky” means that it is subject to real performance peaks, achievable only in certain conditions (track and tire temperature, asphalt grip, and so on).
This also explains the significant improvement (about eight-tenths) observed between Q2 and Q3 in Mexico, by both drivers, confirming how unpredictable the car can be, as its performance can vary from minute to minute.
Charles Leclerc’s comments
Charles Leclerc commented on his third place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix last weekend: “I believe this race has once again confirmed the weaknesses of our car. It’s a ‘peaky’ car. We lose too much time whenever the car can’t operate in the ideal window. It happened when we switched to the hard tire, for example,” added the Monegasque driver.
Indeed, Charles Leclerc felt like he was driving a “completely different” car in the second stint: “Due to the red flag, the tires lost temperature, and at the restart, the feeling was entirely different. It’s a shame because, before the race was interrupted, we were very strong.”
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A constant and predictable car is needed for 2024
Ferrari must work hard in Maranello to solve this problem because they need to place the drivers in a position to understand the car’s behavior under all conditions, without the fear that it might “transform” at any moment.
If they want to compete for a world title, they need to demonstrate the ability to overcome any adversity, be ready from the beginning of the year, and avoid a “freefall” (similar to 2022) in the second part of the Formula One season. It’s a strong plea to the engineers in Maranello: provide these drivers with a car that isn’t “peaky.”
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