Ferrari and Mercedes are certainly the teams that disappointed the most based on the high expectations ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 championship. Red Bull’s supremacy was almost a given after the overwhelming second half of last season. However, the extent of the gap compared to the red team and the silver arrows has led to remediation strategies during the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
The Prancing Horse technicians continue to believe in the aerodynamic concept that allowed Charles Leclerc to be in full fight for the title in the first part of 2022. Mercedes has instead understood that the progress shown in the last part of the past campaign has been partly accentuated by a conservative approach from the Milton Keynes team due to their solid advantage at the top.
Toto Wolff’s team does not intend to chase Red Bull and be sidetracked again. The plan, therefore, is the total review of the aerodynamic concepts. Although the German team is incredibly less performing than the Mercedes-powered Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso’s performance is highlighting that a large part of the package designed by the engineers of the three-pointed star can be successful if combined with an efficient chassis and aerodynamic.
In terms of TRC (Transferrable Components), Mercedes is to Aston Martin what Haas is to Ferrari. Both customer teams make maximum use of all the single-seater components that can be supplied by a manufacturer. And if the performance of the AMR23s offers guarantees regarding the quality of the work done by the technicians from Brackley, at least in the technological perimeter of the TRCs, the men from Maranello cannot count on similar feedback from the US team.
The absence of this finding is partly due to the affinity of the technical project of the VF-23 with respect to the aerodynamic philosophy chosen by the Maranello team. A factor underlined without frills by Toto Wolff. The Austrian manager hinted that, with the same TRC, the root cause of the gap against Aston Martin can only be of an aerodynamic nature.
Even if the performance “as-is” places Ferrari and Mercedes on approximately the same level, the improvement actions planned by the two teams provide some very interesting observations regarding the near future.
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The climb to the top of Ferrari and Mercedes
Frederic Vasseur received the go-ahead from Ferrari’s top management some time ago to strengthen the technical area through the insourcing of important technicians. Clearly this direction highlights the need to compensate for a knowledge gap resulting from years of organizational autarky. It actually represents a motion of no confidence in the current front line of the technical area. The next few months will probably be very delicate for the Italian side.
The French manager will have to manage an organizational structure with many units entrusted to people who are only temporary in that role, while waiting for the recruitment process to be completed as well as the “gardening leave” to be over for the new entries. In this context, we note the unofficial appointment of Enrico Cardile as technical director, as well as that of Diego Tondi who replaces David Sanchez. The worst condition in which a manager can operate: the assignment of ad-interim responsibilities in the absence of valid immediate alternatives.
Clearly we are talking about high-profile managers who will not fail to fulfill their assigned tasks but who could experience the old witch hunt that cyclically grips the enormous potential inherent in the Ferrari Racing Division in a negative way. A completely different approach will be adopted by Mercedes. Despite the denial of Toto Wolff, in fact, the last two technical projects were not supervised by James Allison, involved in other projects, such as the participation of INEOS in the America Cup sailing.
Probably a favorable allocation also in terms of Budget Cap which, apparently, has produced sporting results within the top category of motorsport that are only slightly disappointing for the award-winning Mercedes team.
In all likelihood, the British engineer will return to oversee the work of Mike Elliott, whose perseverance in the zero sidepod concept could relegate him to a secluded position in the technical area. Going back to Ferrari, we can say that all of Fred Vasseur’s managerial skills will be needed to maximize the work of a working group full of “future reserves” and at the same time engage the best technical profiles who will accept the challenge of reviving the sporting fortunes of the historic Italian team.
Mercedes, therefore, seems to rely on the people it knows very well, capable of carrying out technical projects that have dominated the Formula 1 scene for eight very long years, without causing significant changes in the delicate balance of complex organizational structures such as those of an F1 team. Ferrari, on the contrary, will try to ‘fill the shopping cart’ and bring in new engineers on key positions.
