Fernando Alonso had announced it after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix: “Ferrari will be more in trouble in the heat of Miami”. However, not even a track temperature over 20°C cooler than the real heat of Friday allowed the SF-23 to stay ahead of Aston Martin and Mercedes. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished in fifth and seventh positions respectively, as the fourth absolute force in the first of the three appointments that are scheduled to take place in the United States during this long (but boring) 2023 Formula One championship.
Identical position in the Constructors’ standings for the Maranello team, 18 points away from Mercedes (96) and 24 from Aston Martin (102) while Red Bull dominates far and wide with more than twice the points (224) of the Silverstone team.
Ferrari SF-23: the operating window has (always) remained small
Australia and Baku had proved to be two not very demanding circuits regarding the most important problems that are affecting the Maranello Formula 1 car. Two slow races had been run, with the drivers more inclined to protect the tires than to seek performance. Mainly external factors, certainly coupled with steps forward in understanding the SF-23 (not that the other teams have stood still) had widened a normally very small operating window for the Italian car. “There is a lot of work to do because we have a car with a narrow operating window. When we hit it, the feeling is pretty good, but as soon as we come out of it, everything becomes very difficult,” confirmed Charles Leclerc at the end of the race. In addition, when the SF-23 exits certain conditions, it loses the aerodynamic platform, experiencing even unexpected bouncing.
This resulted in a Miami Grand Prix not too dissimilar to what had already been seen in Jeddah, with a gap in terms of pace from Red Bull practically identical, namely 7 tenths per lap. The better understanding of the SF-23 and a new floor that was worth (only) a tenth per lap in the United States was cancelled out by the development package of 3 tenths brought by Red Bull to Baku, and which was clearly visible in Miami after important data collection work, also with the classic flow-viz paint, in free practice on Friday.
And as was the case in Saudi Arabia, there was not much more in the car. Charles Leclerc wanted to try a different setup but without success, with an SF-23 that once again proved to be a “unpredictable Diva” as they call it in Maranello. We prefer to define it instead, also for a better understanding of the readers, a simply slow car with design limits not so easily solvable, especially in the era of the budget cap.
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Ferrari SF-23: a new development direction from Barcelona
“Is it a matter of aerodynamic concept? No. We just need to be able to extract the potential of this car throughout the weekend and in all conditions,” Frederic Vasseur assured after the race in Saudi Arabia. This comment could also apply to post-Miami, after Ferrari managed to extract greater potential from its car thanks to a new direction taken in terms of mechanical setup. However, there are limitations that cannot be solved with just a different setup management, especially on certain circuits and conditions. That’s why we were talking about understanding and developments.
“We need to work to have a more consistent car in the race. The car wasn’t working in the first stint, while things improved slightly with the Hard tires,” Chares Leclerc said. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, had a completely different opinion, which is not surprising considering that the two opted for rather different mechanical setups. “In the first stint [on Mediums] I had the same pace as Fernando. Then with the Hard tire, the pace disappeared and we found ourselves 20 seconds behind him at the end of the race. This shows that we have a lot of work to do on tire management and race pace,” explained the Spanish driver of Ferrari following the race which was held at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA.
Carlos Sainz was the first to question the aerodynamic concept of the SF-23. “Red Bull has a clear advantage, which shows that we need to change something. Our car doesn’t have a major problem, but it has a very small usage window that makes it unpredictable.” These words were said after Jeddah but are still true today. “The possibility of developing the Red Bull concept is much greater than that of our project, which is why we need to start looking elsewhere,” the Spanish driver concluded. By ‘looking elsewhere,’ he meant trying to move towards the concept of the RB19 on a car, the SF-23, which is now completely different, as explained by F1 journalists and experts Piergiuseppe Donadoni and Giuliano Duchessa for formu1a.uno.
In the post-Miami GP, he indirectly returned to the topic. “At the moment, we are in a position where we need to try a lot to understand why we struggle so much in the race. Other updates will also arrive at Imola, and we will try setup things again, but in Barcelona, we will try to change the car a bit and go in another direction [of development] to try to improve the race pace as well.” While they want to maintain the qualities of the SF-23 and not completely change the good areas of the car, also for cost reasons, it is very likely that the concept of the tanks will be revised, going towards improving the aerodynamic efficiency before increasing the load on the wings, including the beam wing. In fact, at Maranello, they would be trying to maximize the flow lower down towards the diffuser ramp, in a more Red Bull style but on a completely different car to date (the lower intrusion cone does not allow Ferrari to replicate the important front underbody of the RB19) by involving the lower part of the beam wing more and creating a rather different blowing towards the rear.
It is also possible that some internal components of the rear suspension may change between Imola and Barcelona, remembering that mechanical aspects are always at the service of aerodynamics and, especially on this generation of ground-effect cars, play an even more important role. This is an important month because we need to understand as soon as possible if everything needs to be redone, to avoid sacrificing the next season as well.
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