F1 | Ferrari: development plan for SF-23 in three (or four) steps

It are feverish days in the Racing Department: Ferrari has planned the development of the SF-23 with the goal of relaunching of the 2023 F1 car after a start in the Formula 1 championship far below expectations.

Even during the Easter days, the staff in the Ferrari Racing Department will be very busy trying to finalize the updates which should be on track in time for the Spanish GP on 4 June, when the renewed Prancing Horse car should show up in a complete new outfit, changing its aerodynamic concept to convert, as much as possible, to the philosophy of the Red Bull RB19.

Mercedes had planned it: the German side will give up the “zero-pods” concept of the W14 and Ferrari was also convinced to take a different direction, albeit later. The Maranello technicians would have set a recovery plan in three or four stages, according to F1 journalist Franco Nugnes, who explained the Italian side’s next steps in a recent article for Motorsport Italy.

It is a race against time and the attempt of the staff coordinated by Enrico Cardile is to anticipate the modifications that can be put into the car as soon as it will be possible to have the necessary spare parts for both SF-23 cars.

The three milestones that have been fixed in the calendar are: Baku, Imola and Barcelona. On paper, starting from the next race we should see the introduction of technical innovations at each Grand Prix. On the other hand, it is not excluded that beyond the specific update for the Miami street circuit there may be some updates that could arrive for Imola.

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Broadly speaking, we can summarize the macro areas of development: Baku with a new diffuser, Imola with the rear suspension and the new ‘Red Bull by Ferrari’ sidepods will make their debut in Barcelona. All other smaller changes will be influenced by the production times of the individual parts and by the performance on the SF-23 based on the innovations introduced previously.

As we have already mentioned, Ferrari launched this complex plan that eats up a good part of the budget cap destined for the evolution of the SF-23 only after having found the cause of the lack of correlation between the wind tunnel and track data that sent the Maranello team into a panic in the first two races (Bahrain and Jeddah).

It would have made no sense to launch a series of updates to the single-seater without being sure that a “base line” had been defined in setting up the car. Australia didn’t earn Ferrari any points, but at least it provided important answers to the most disturbing questions.

It’s not really the case to talk about challenging world championship leader Max Verstappen, but Ferrari is confident it can fight against Mercedes and Aston Martin for second place in the Constructors championship and get closer to Red Bull’s performance at least in the second part of the season.

It is the great opportunity for this working group to redeem a season that started badly with a car that was supposed to be the main rival for Red Bull and which, instead, turned out to be a flop bigger than its actual potential. In Maranello they are trying to put everything in order and they can’t go wrong, otherwise Fred Vasseur’s ‘cleaver’ will hit hard. There are those who already argue that the role of the French manager has been weakened.

Let’s give him time, because in reality a silent campaign to bring on new staff would have already started, but Ferrari has to deal with the difficulties of convincing foreign technicians who don’t want to come to Italy: the Scuderia today lacks a reference figure who can give guarantees on a medium-term project The top management (John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna) have taken a step back, preferring silence.

The project for the 2026 engine is also starting in this delicate phase: Enrico Gualtieri, head of the engine area, has entrusted it to the group’s creative mind, Wolf Zimmermann, head of the advanced projects area. The German, who is also the “father” of the 066/7 power unit, has been working on the single-cylinder for a couple of months, after some regulations and rules that weren’t clear at all were finally clarified by the FIA.