Race week is here and we are just a few days away before the first Grand Prix of the 2023 Formula 1 world championship. The expectations are very high and the teams, starting with Scuderia Ferrari, are at work both in Sakhir and in the physical locations from their headquarters in an exchange of data and evaluations regarding the feedback collected during the three days of pre-season testing, which were held last week at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Ferrari SF-23, in these few days ahead of the first round, hours, is the subject of a real technical analysis necessary to ponder its specifications.
After observing the behavior of the cars and analyzing them thoroughly during the last few days, the work carried out by the Maranello team remains quite difficult to understand or interpret. The SF-23 looks like a real unknown. A car that was literally put to the whip in terms of set-up and which, in certain circumstances, had even shown clear porpoinsing (it happened on Friday morning, with Charles Leclerc, ed).
Tests which were necessary to understand what caused the negative effects to definitively avoid the resurgence of the problem. These tests clearly confused the observer a little, making a concrete drawing of the car’s characteristics impossible. However, they emerge anyway, given that they have noticed an SF-23 car very fast in a straight line and which, for now, is suffering slightly in the fast corners.
One aspect should be underlined: the SF-23 has generally used a rather unloaded rear wing. Which could suggest that they have gone quite cautious with the engine mappings that will clearly increase over the race weekend. This element will make it possible to load the car which will therefore be able to generate greater vertical thrust, solving several problems that emerged between Thursday and last Saturday.
Ferrari SF-23: a traveling laboratory
That the Ferrari SF-23 was a traveling laboratory was directly confirmed by Frédéric Vasseur when he spoke of the difficulties encountered by Charles Leclerc in some moments of the Sakhir tests: “In these three days we have tried many things” – explained the French manager for Motorsport – “There have been solutions that worked, others that have not. I think Charles’ last run was very good, maybe he’s not at the top yet but he drove in very hot track conditions and his performance was good.”
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Ferrari has not let itself be attracted by the lap time, by the chrono that goes on display and fills the pages of newspapers and websites. The main target was the growth of the car, the discovery of its potential and it was never thought of chasing Red Bull and Mercedes in terms of laps on soft tires. That’s why the focus was totally on longer runs and on understanding the new Pirelli tires which, it should be clearly underlined, generated some headaches for the men in red. Especially with the softer compounds which, however, won’t be used during the Bahrain race weekend.
Frederic Vasseur detailed the operational target by stating that several tests have been completed, using a wide range of setups, even extreme ones, under the magnifying glass. “Some worked well right away, others less so. I’m quite happy with what we’ve done in these three days. The most important thing in the winter tests is being able to put in the kilometers because, if for some reason you are not able to do so, it’s a disaster.”
With the engines off, in some circumstances, the drivers were seen talking to the technicians: very normal dynamics in such an early stage of the season. Someone pointed out that the Ferrari members weren’t very relaxed, as if to underline that there were insurmountable problems. Things are not quite like that. Fred Vasseur explained that if the drivers were fully satisfied, this would mean that the correct professional approach would be lacking.
“The DNA of this sport – underlined the former Sauber boss – leads to always wanting to achieve more and having to do more. Excluding the top in qualifying, if a driver is happy with the balance it means that he is not pushing hard enough. I find it normal for a driver to always ask for more grip, it’s part of the game. Summing up, at the end of the three days, I see that the performance is there, but obviously we don’t know much about our opponents.”
Ferrari SF-23: Reliability and development plan the key priorities
At Ferrari, therefore, they went their own way following a predefined programme. Not having changed the key concepts of the car is a sign of conviction of one’s means and above all that everything went as it should. The foundations have been laid for preparing a development plan that must support the improvement of a car that appears to be fast but not as fast as the Red Bull RB19 which starts the season as favourite.
The 2023 Formula 1 championship, therefore, will be decided by two aspects that were lacking for the Maranello team last year: targeted update plan and reliability. Last season Ferrari lost the development battle which Red Bull dominated far and wide. Frederic Vasseur is well aware of this but avoids getting into arguments with his predecessor, Mattia Binotto, who had repeatedly reported that he had blocked the growth of the F1-75 to concentrate on the 675 project.
“I don’t want to comment on last year, it was probably a choice aimed at focusing on some projects in view of 2023. I think last season’s development program was conditioned by the fact that Red Bull and Mercedes had started very late in 2021 and as a result, their 2022 cars started the season overweight.”
According to the French manager, the two rival teams, which will probably be the Italian side’s opponents in the battle for race wins and podiums, had an easy time as they worked on weight, an element on which it would be easier to operate and which gives immediate and important results in terms of lap time. Hence the comeback of the RB18 and the W13. This year, on the other hand, everyone starts from a specific weight and therefore the improvements should bring less lap time gain.
Scuderia Ferrari, for its part, has already set up a development plan that will run until the end of the season. Jeddah or Melbourne should be the first stages of this development journey, as confirmed by Fred Vasseur himself. Which also placed the emphasis on the reliability issue that in 2022 cost Ferrari many points.
The Ferrari SF-23 covered more than two thousand kilometers without presenting any problems with the engine. A good sign which, however, cannot be considered a general law. As we explained at the beginning, Ferrari did not work with extreme mappings. The V6 has not been overly stressed. So for now, we’re sticking with the results from the dynamic benches that had been encouraging. As Piero Ferrari also confirmed a few days ago.
However, a small alarm bell rang out due to the failure of the power unit mounted on the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas who was stranded on the morning of the last day of activity at the Bahrain track. Something that the Ferrari engineers are investigating to understand if the problem arose from an issue with the power unit itself or due to a specific problem related to the Alfa Romeo car.
Scuderia Ferrari therefore tried to define the basis on which to build a development plan that will be necessary to reduce the gap with Red Bull, should the official rounds confirm it. 2022 was a year that taught Fred Vasseur and his collaborators a lot and, precisely from the lessons learned, they intend to start in order not to make the same procedural errors that limited the victory ambitions of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz last year.
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