Despite the fact that Scuderia Ferrari is going through a period of changes at the top of the Formula 1 Racing Division, confidence remains high in Maranello ahead of the 2023 championship, even before new team boss Fred Vasseur officially begins his work for the Italian side in a few days’ time.
The Maranello engineers and technicians have thoroughly evaluated and identified three major areas where the F1-75 challenger lost the duel against rivals Red Bull, especially in the second part of the 2022 Formula 1 season. The Maranello staff has focused on those key areas and according to recent reports from insiders has made solid progress with the 2023 F1 car: data collected from the wind tunnel and CFD simulations, as well as from the power unit test bench and dyno is providing positive feedback and therefore confidence to the people in Maranello that next year’s chassis, which internally is known as project 675, can give drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc a great change of challenging Red Bull and Mercedes for both championships.
Speaking in an interview a few weeks ago, after the end of the 2022 F1 season, Charles Leclerc pointed out that “I’m confident for 2023 because we have been doing a lot of work in the simulator. Over the last few months, we’ve tried to understand what the weak points on the 2022 car were, so we could improve them for the 2023 car. And the whole team, with Mattia still in the factory, is working flat out to have the best possible preparation for next year.” – the Monegasque added.
As reported by Motorsport Italy, Ferrari has been working hard on improving three major aspects based on the analysis of the F1-75’s weaknesses and the Italian media confirms that the 2023 Ferrari car will be an important step forward in terms of aerodynamic drag, tyre management and consumption and reliability of the Power Unit, which will allow Ferrari to use its full engine power, as opposed to the second part if 2022. Ferrari was well aware of the fact that the F1-75 was a solid baseline for the 2023 car and that there was no need to change any major design concepts: the F1-75 was a good starting point and the Italian side therefore focused on a few key improvements with the goal of starting the 2023 Formula 1 campaign with a car as competitive as the 2022-spec car proved to be in Bahrain this season.
While the Maranello team was confident that there was no issue with its aerodynamic choices for the F1-75, a detailed analysis of the Red Bull RB18 led to the conclusion that the Austrian side was able to run with front and rear wings which flexed a lot more than those of the Italian chassis. At the same time, the Red Bull RB18 components passed the FIA-mandatory push and drag tests.
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As a result, Scuderia Ferrari has invested in new materials with the clear goal of increasing the elasticity of the wings without affecting its structural strength. This should allow the 2023 F1 car to have a better straight-line speed, which was the major problem Ferrari faced this season, especially compared to Red Bull’s impressive straight-line speed. We should therefore expect the new car to be significantly similar to the F1-75 from a visually point of view, as Ferrari is confident its standard aerodynamic concepts on the 2022-spec car were the best ones.
Moving on to the tyre management topic, the Maranello team accepted to be involved to most of the Pirelli tyre tests in the last few months and this winter, hoping to have a better understanding of its new tyres for the 2023 Formula 1 championship. While other teams rejected the opportunity to take part in such tests or sent their reserve drivers, Scuderia Ferrari asked Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to complete a Pirelli test at Fiorano and gather as much data as possible, despite the limited running and feedback which is available to the teams. Ferrari also wanted to make sure that the new Pirelli tyres don’t affect the understeer characteristics from the car, because this key features helps Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s driving style. The first results from the simulator are encouraging, with the Scuderia heading in the right direction from the tyre management point of view as well.
Last but not least, the new evolution of the Ferrari power unit should no longer be affected by the reliability issues seen this season, which led to Charles Leclerc missing out on two race wins, in Spain and Baku. Ferrari had anticipated some reliability problems for 2022, given the fact that last year the main focus was on performance, a direct consequence of the big push made before all engines were homologated and development frozen for the next three years.
With updates brought mainly on the hybrid systems, but also on the V6 engine, targeting a better life span for the Power Unit, the Maranello team has completed several dyno tests and is confident it will be able to use the new engine at full power, like in the first few rounds of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign, before the engine failures forced the Ferrari technicians to limit the power for the remaining part of the season, a decision which former team principal Mattia Binotto confirmed “cost us between 15 and 20 bhp from then on.”
Frederic Vasseur should therefore find a very confident team once when he arrives in Maranello in the first days of January, as his main task will be to focus on the human structure of the team. To be able to defeat Red Bull and Mercedes, Ferrari has to avoid operational mistakes such as slow pit stops and improve the strategy decisions, which several times let Charles Leclerc down in 2022, as was the case in Monaco, at Silverstone and Hungaroring.
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