F1, Ferrari: why is a less extreme SF-23 car performing better now?

Fred Vasseur was not wrong when he said that the red car had to be better than the disappointing potential it showed during races, especially in the first half of the season. Then, at Maranello, they made a shift in the development direction, adopting less extreme solutions that allowed the SF-23 to find a broader performance window. Besides the victory in Singapore, they might also secure the second place in the Constructors’ Championship, which seemed like a dream at the beginning of 2023.

Last year, Ferrari had stopped the development of the F1-75 quite early, choosing to allocate all human and financial resources to the SF-23 project. This year, the story seems slightly different. The red car of 2022 had shown clear development limits, and after the introduction of technical directive TD039, it experienced a crisis, losing the upward momentum that had marked Red Bull and Mercedes, while the 2023 car appears to have hidden qualities that were not evident during the vehicle’s launch at Fiorano.

Last winter, the FIA had imposed rule changes in aerodynamics with the aim of limiting the oscillations due to porpoising, raising the edge of the floor by 15 mm and the diffuser elbow by 10 mm. In 2024, the regulations will remain continuous, meaning the solutions found in this final phase of the championship could be suitable for next year, and vice versa. What has been developed for next year’s car might be applied in this remaining part of 2023.

Interesting things are happening, to say the least. In this analysis, it is fair to begin by acknowledging Fred Vasseur’s perspective: the French team principal, when the red car displayed concerning performance flaws, defended his engineers, emphasizing like a mantra that a car fast on a single lap should not become a disaster during a race.

For the first half of the season, it seemed more like an excuse to keep a team that was on the verge of collapse together. However, judging by the results seen after the summer break (excluding Zandvoort), it can be affirmed that certain hidden abilities (at least on certain tracks) have surfaced. Ferrari has claimed two pole positions and a victory, breaking Max Verstappen’s record-winning streak in Singapore.

The red car’s limitations are clear and become especially evident on tracks like Suzuka, where sudden direction changes in the initial snake are followed by long, fast, high-speed curves. The nature of a flawed car cannot be changed within a single season, especially with the budget cap as a spending constraint. However, in this championship, Ferrari may have realized that with ground-effect cars, it’s not necessary to push the performance envelope to the extreme; it’s more appropriate to optimize the car’s behavior over the course of a lap.

Historically, it has been in the Maranello’s philosophy to seek peak performance in design choices, only to discover issues related to reliability and tire degradation during a race stint. It took until the beginning of summer to realize that the concept applied to the SF-23 was wrong: both in pursuing the “last drop” of horsepower from the 066/10 and in aerodynamic choices aimed solely at recovering missing downforce.

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The result was a car with a very limited performance window, often exhibiting variable and unpredictable reactions that made the drivers’ lives difficult, leading them to commit errors due to the gradual loss of confidence. This was a glaring own goal because the lack of competitiveness could have negatively affected the many healthy aspects of the Scuderia, creating a potentially grave negative spiral.

By the summer holidays, after the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Ferrari was fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, trailing the second-placed Mercedes by 56 points and still behind Aston Martin. However, from the beginning of the second half of the season, the Maranello team has gained 36 points, reducing the gap to the Silver Arrows to just 20 points, with six calendar events remaining.

What has changed to bring about this reversal of fortune? The arrival of a few new faces from Red Bull, not prominent figures to disrupt the organization but individuals familiar with Milton Keynes’ approach to Formula 1, advised Enrico Cardile (chassis chief) and Enrico Gualtieri (engine chief) to sacrifice something paradoxically to go faster.

On paper, it appears to be a contradiction in terms, but facts have demonstrated otherwise. The concept designed by David Sanchez, the French engineer who resigned early in the season to return to McLaren in 2024, was not entirely incorrect. It wasn’t about challenging the unattainable Red Bull on equal terms, but at least rivalling all the others.

When the revised version of the SF-23, which debuted in Barcelona with changes to the underfloor and sidepod design, did not perform as expected, someone at the Scuderia must have considered resignation. Ferrari seemed to have entered a black hole where nothing worked.

In reality, it was understood that it was possible to revise the use of the hybrid system by redistributing electrical energy differently. Slightly reducing traction torque (where the SF-23 already excels) helped limit the imperceptible tire slip, which could lead to overheating. At the same time, it enabled a greater release of energy on the straights, reducing lift and coast before braking zones, thus improving maximum speed.

Ferrari has made significant progress in managing the power unit electronically, with new strategies that can have positive effects on both reliability and consumption, another sensitive topic for the 066/10. Even the starts have demonstrated increased responsiveness, enabling the red cars to get off to a good start in the recent races.

If this work, a result of testing on the dynamometer, is combined with a step back in terms of suspension settings, it becomes clear that with slightly less rigid suspensions and less extreme camber angles, it is possible to find a ground clearance that generates more aerodynamic load with the car’s body, without experiencing the porpoising phenomenon.

In summary, the car’s approach has been reprogrammed within the scope of its inherent limitations without forcing development toward extreme concepts. The underfloor that debuted in Suzuka is the result of months of analysis, yielding a floor design with more “lung” areas, ensuring that no bouncing occurs.

It is said to be a solution not primarily designed to improve lap times but to provide the drivers with a more user-friendly car. The Japan Grand Prix confirmed that the solution (closer to Red Bull’s concepts) works. Now, the Cavallino’s engineers will have to adjust the setups to match these geometries, and some performance gains (albeit small) cannot be ruled out.

Understanding the rules and the SF-23 is helping Maranello’s engineers in their pursuit of a podium place in the Constructors’ Championship. Those at home, however, can gain valuable insights into project 676, which is continuously evolving. To challenge Red Bull, it will be necessary to adopt more daring solutions than the overly conventional ones applied until now…