Even at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA, the location of the fifth round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, Ferrari has shown that it is not fast enough not only to compete with the currently unbeatable Red Bull RB19s of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, but also for the podium with Aston Martin.
In Florida, Scuderia Ferrari debuted a new underfloor design different from the one used up until the Baku race weekend. However, it is expected to provide convincing answers starting from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Imola circuit, when Ferrari will combine it with other innovations that are needed for the new floor to work at its best.
Meanwhile, what the team continues to emphasize is the inconsistency in the performance of the SF-23 cars between one stint and the next, between one set of tires and another, but especially between one lap and the next. This is perhaps the aspect that worries the engineers in Maranello the most, as they have to take note of a positive lap time from their drivers and inexplicably, a negative one in the next. And so on, without interruption.
After Miami, the Ferrari team principal, Frédéric Vasseur, emphasized the inconsistency in the times that has afflicted the Maranello team not only in Miami, but also in the four races that preceded the United States one.
“In general, it was a difficult weekend and a complex race because on Saturday our pace was decent, but we still couldn’t put everything together, and in the race things went almost the same way. The first stint went fairly well for Carlos, who lost a couple of seconds (to the front) in the first third of the race, but then lost 25 seconds in the next two thirds. We were too inconsistent from one car to another, from one lap to the next. We need to understand why.” – the French managed explained.
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It should be said that Carlos Sainz Jr. did lose only a few seconds to the leader Sergio Perez in the first part of the race, but the benchmark car for performance was the Red Bull RB19 with the number 1 on the nose, driven by Max Verstappen, who won the Miami Grand Prix after starting from ninth. Therefore, the gap between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz’s times should be read with caution and without forgetting which car is being used for comparison.
Frederic Vasseur then continued talking about the different behavior that the SF-23s show in the various stages of the race. Carlos Sainz did well with the Medium tires in the first stint, while Charles Leclerc struggled the entire time with the same tires, repeatedly underlining how he couldn’t get the car to turn because of a very small window of tire usage due to the current characteristics of the Ferrari SF-23 single-seater.
“It’s not just a matter of the race, because in some stages of the race, we did well. Once again, Carlos lost 5 seconds in 18 laps in the first stint with the Medium tires. I think this phase of the race was good for us.” – he explained.
“For Charles, on the other hand, it was the opposite: in some stages of the second stint with the Hard tires, he appeared to be in good shape because he had struggled much more in the first part of the race with the Medium tires. But we really need to focus on inconsistency, because it is fundamental for us.” – the Frenchman continued.
“That’s the exact point where we need to take a step forward. With Charles, we were more performant with the Hard tires, with Carlos, we were much more so with the Medium tires. And even with the same tires from one lap to the next, we don’t have the same consistency in performance and output,” concluded the Ferrari team principal after the 2023 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
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