Ferrari will be ready for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the Baku City Circuit in a week and for the usual checks by the International Federation. Next Thursday, therefore, we will understand if the technicians of the Maranello team have decided to bring forward some updates. However, we should take into consideration that the Baku layout and the particular format of the weekend, Sprint Race, will make any data collection for the new components designed to “cure” the main issues of the SF-23 even more complicated.
Working under stress without the necessary peace of mind is never easy. It is not for the technicians let alone for the drivers called, who will have the important task of evaluating the updates which Ferrari will bring to the track. Furthermore, the limited time available would make everything tremendously more complicated, as the moments to process the data collection would be really limited.
Not to mention a fact: the long spring break was also a good opportunity for the competition to improve. And considering the performance advantage that Red Bull, Aston Martin and partly Mercedes enjoy at the moment, the scenario just described makes us understand the difficulties that the Prancing Horse is forced to face.
However, according to the information gathered by the well-documented Italian website Formula One Technical Analysis, the Ferrari Racing Division is fairly optimistic in relation to the latest events within the Maranello factory. The simulator is a crucial tool in this “F1 Multiverse”. This is clear. It could not be otherwise given the current Formula 1 rules and regulations.
Nonetheless, as widely underlined in the last few days, in addition to the complexity in managing this particular tool, certain parameters are still absent in the virtual world, regardless of how well managed the data is. These elements in fact open up to a subjective context that can affect the feedback of the updates.
Ferrari: Baku first step towards recovery
The premise of the text has a clear intention: to make known the direction that the historic team from Maranello intends to implement. Ferrari will therefore continue along the lines of Melbourne, continuing the technical mapping of the single-seater to better define the operational setup window.
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This element is very important, because knowing the characteristics and behavior of a Formula 1 car by heart, in fact, means being able to access the maximum available potential by extrapolating its capabilities. To do this, the Maranello engineers have focused on a detailed study of the recent past.
Then there is another issues, which has been far less talked about. It concerns the Ferrari power unit. The pages of the main news media outlets dedicated to the top category of motorsport are full of aerodynamic topics concerning the Ferrari car. While the mechanical part, rear suspension aside, is hardly mentioned.
In this respect, Ferrari deliberately tries to prevent any information from becoming public. But in fact the engine that powers the SF-23 doesn’t work exactly as it should. Formula One Technical Analysis have noticed this through the study of the onboard footage, as explained by F1 expert Alessandro Arcari. The rule relating to reliability made it possible for the Italian side to work on the power unit despite the development freeze imposed by the international federation. However, this advantage, it seems, has not been exploited to the maximum of its possibilities.
This can be clearly seen through two factors: a degree of “reliability” that is certainly not optimal, also noticed on customer teams on various occasions, and a certain impossibility of fully exploiting the power and efficiency of the 066/10 engine in certain situations. On this aspect, many efforts have been made in view of the fourth round of the 2023 Formula One world championship, which is necessary to try and take full advantage of a weapon that is undoubtedly very important if used properly.
In Azerbaijan the importance of the power unit is vital. It will therefore be interesting to discover the aerodynamic configuration used which in itself will give us an initial response, even before taking to the track, on how the Italian technicians intend to approach a weekend in relation to the power that can be developed by the engine.
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