F1 | Ferrari SF23: is tire degradation result of a questionable technical philosophy?. Focusing on Ferrari tire degradation.

Scuderia Ferrari decision of continuing with the rear aerodynamic solution, already adopted on the previous year’s car, did not convince many F1 tech experts and what we saw in Bahrain during the first race of the 2023 Formula 1 season confirms some doubts in this regard.

Several F1 technical analysts explained their doubts about a technical solution that only Ferrari and Haas wanted to continue pursuing, that of the final “fletching” of the sidepods. This is a solution that diverts the air flow collected by the “donut” towards the rear wing and not downwards towards the diffuser. Like Red Bull (designed by Adrian Newey) instead does with, it seems, a lot more success. The idea is to send as much air as possible into the upper part of the diffuser and help extraction from the floor with a series of pressures, favoring the acceleration of the air in the Venturi channels under the floor.

In Maranello they clearly followed a different technical philosophy. The Ferrari engineers may have had their good reasons but the results on the track are certainly responding – and since last year – in a negative way.

The lower load on the rear generates poor management of tire wear and the progressive lightening of the car makes it even more difficult, lap after lap, in the race. In qualifying the problem does not manifest itself. A single lap doesn’t affect the tyres, on the contrary the lower load, and in fact the less drag, can at some tracks (just like Bahrain) favor the overall performance. On this track there are some long straights and the SF-23 engine, this year much better in terms of power – not reliability – was able to reach excellent top speed peaks.

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Yes of course we are at the first race of the season. The world championship is long, but either Ferrari intervene radically, perhaps experimenting with different and clearly opposite solutions to the current ones, maybe by taking advantage of the many GPs on the 2023 calendar to recover what can be saved and also look towards the future. In view of the 2024 season.