Important news and speculation regarding the development of the new Scuderia Ferrari car continue to arrive from Maranello. The SF-23, according to what we saw in the winter pre-season testing session at the Bahrain International Circuit, appears to be a car with enormous potential, but more difficult to unlock as compared to last year’s F1-75. Furthermore, especially in the morning sessions, we noticed a very bouncing and understeering car. These are factors that also contributed to the high tire wear seen on long runs.
Furthermore, according to sources inside Ferrari, the SF-23 would have lapped with an increased ground clearance in Bahrain with the goal of limiting the bouncing seen in the first day of testing.
SF23: Will Ferrari adopt a more aggressive approach already in free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix?
As reported by Formu1a.uno: “The technicians on the Shakir track in these three days of testing carried out some rather extreme tests in terms of suspension stiffness and ground clearance. The so-called ‘scan’ then began to bear fruit, suggesting which are the best options for a good basic setup to make the most of the new Ferrari SF-23. A source confirmed to us that the Ferrari SF-23 ran higher to limit the harmful bouncing.” – the well-informed Formu1a.uno website reports.
The Maranello team seems to have therefore decided to run with a greater ground clearance as compared to the competition (especially Red Bull) in the pre-season testing session. The clear goal was obviously to reduce the bouncing, seen especially in the early morning of Day 1. Furthermore, the mechanics experimented with a multitude of different setups, to try to find the right balance of the car.
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The SF-23 suffered a lot from understeer in the three days of Sakhir, especially in the hottest hours. This particularly put Charles Leclerc in crisis, as the Monegasque driver does not prefer such a style of driving. Instead, it went better for Carlos Sainz, who was much more satisfied than his teammate regarding the feeling with the car.
Also according to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari will adopt a much more aggressive approach in the free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The goal is to lower the ground clearance to be able to extract the maximum potential of the SF-23. Furthermore, with engine mapping pushed to the maximum, all Ferrari-powered cars should gain about 2/3 tenths of power, which should reduce the gap seen with Red Bull so far. We will therefore see if the verdict of the pre-season testing session will be overturned in the first official weekend in Bahrain.
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