Zero points, but comforting indications
For a team like Scuderia Ferrari, finishing a race weekend with zero points is obviously a result that leaves its inevitable aftermath among the fans and journalists’ analyses. If what happened in Australia is added to the first two races in which the Maranello team was not able to score a podium, the picture of fourth place in the world championship, 97 points behind Red Bull, takes on the scenario of an unexpected nightmare.
But in Melbourne we saw an SF-23 car closer to the level of Mercedes and Aston Martin than in the two previous performances and only two driving errors, first by Charles Leclerc and then by Carlos Sainz, prevented the team from confirming the positive track impressions also with points in the standings.
In Federico Albano’s analysis on the pages of FormulaPassion.it, a not entirely negative scenario emerged, with some glimmers of light in overall poor image in the start of the 2023 Formula One season: “As far as the Maranello team is concerned, the impression of the Australian weekend is that of a solid step forward on the setup front. The SF23 seems to be starting to perform at least as desired by the engineers and the package brought to the track was arguably on par with Mercedes and Aston Martin“, although the pace of the leading group has been reduced and may have affected the management of tire degradation on the Hard mounted by Carlos Sainz in his comeback that had brought him up to fourth place.
Fred Vasseur confirms progress
Ferrari fans are getting to know team principal Frederic Vasseur, who has been at the helm of the Gestione Sportiva for four months. No bombastic statements, a smile ready for any situation and determination to motivate his men and keep up the morale of the troops despite the difficulties. In fact, the French manager always looks for the positive side of every race and he did so on the sidelines of the Melbourne event: “We saw a competitive Ferrari. We had good race pace and fought very close to the front. Clearly this is not enough, we have to keep working, because our goal is not to finish fourth.” – he explained.
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As has emerged in recent days, Maranello is trying to make a change in a season that started off on the wrong foot, with numerous updates arriving over the next two months. Fred Vasseur confirmed that “we have to keep working to have a consistent car for the next races. Here in Australia our pace was better but the DRS made a big difference with four specific zones. However, I think we have made a big step forward in terms of performance, although the result has not been what we hoped for and there is a certain amount of frustration. But what we have seen will give us an extra motivation to keep fighting in the next grand prix.” – concluded the Scuderia Ferrari team principal in the statements reported by the Spaniards of SoyMotor.
