The Azerbaijan GP 2023 didn’t leave much room for emotions. The race was very orderly and finished according to expectations. Ferrari man Charles Leclerc had to surrender early to the great power of the Red Bull’s DRS. The Safety Car was necessary in the first laps to remove Nyck De Vries’s car and only forced Charles to suffer an additional overtaking by Max Verstappen. In contrast, the Dutchman returned to the pits just moments before the safety car was released, losing the race lead and the opportunity to win against his teammate and rival in the championship fight, Sergio Perez.
Before proceeding with our considerations, let’s take a look at the press release issued by Pirelli at the end of the race.
The teams’ race strategies were conditioned by the entry of the Safety Car at the beginning of the race. Most of the drivers, including all those on the podium, replaced Medium tires with Hard ones between the ninth and eleventh lap. Almost all of them made it to the end with the harder compounds, also setting their fastest laps in the last minutes of the race.
The fastest lap on Hard tires was set by Verstappen (Red Bull) in 1’44”232. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) made the longest stint on Mediums (16 laps), setting the best time on these compounds in 1’46”304. The best time of the day, 1’43”370, was set by Russell on the fifty-first lap after making a pit stop on the penultimate lap of the race, specifically fitting Soft tires.
The reliability of the Hard compounds on the Baku circuit was demonstrated by the races of Hulkenberg (Haas) and Ocon (Alpine). The two started from the pit lane with a new set and finished the race on Softs, but respectively on the penultimate and third-last lap. Therefore, the Frenchman covered 50 laps, almost the entire duration of the race, on the same set of Hard tires.
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During the race, temperatures were in line with Saturday’s. The ambient temperature remained between 25 and 28 °C while the asphalt peaked at 44 °C in the first minutes of the competition.
Ferrari, when being fast is not enough
We conclude the analysis by looking at the race performed by Scuderia Ferrari.
The SF-23 clearly has potential in terms of pure performance. This was seen in qualifying and also in the final stages of the race, with Charles Leclerc actively participating in the fight for the fastest lap together with Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso. What the Italian side’s car lacks (in addition to a powerful DRS system like Red Bull’s) is the ability to adequately manage the tire and to be able to push constantly and competitively throughout the stint. The gap of 21” as compared to Sergio Perez speaks for itself.
The road to recovering the disadvantage against the Milton Keynes team is uphill. Even Aston Martin and Mercedes are doing a better job. The characteristics of the Azerbaijan track helped Charles and Carlos to at least maintain their position on Alonso and Hamilton, respectively (it should be remembered, however, that Fernando managed to make a nice overtaking move on the Ferrari SF-23 of his compatriot), but it won’t be like this on all tracks.
There is no magic wand capable of solving the problem. The car’s body ( the macroscopic part of the problem, then obviously many elements contribute) does not generate sufficient aerodynamic load: the tires cannot maintain optimal contact with the asphalt in all circumstances, and thus, depending on the peculiarities of the track, tend to overheat or cool down too much. A targeted development path must be taken in this regard.
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