New Scuderia Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur admitted that he was proud by his new team for its no-nonsense car reveal, which was held yesterday at the Fiorano circuit in front of many thrilled Tifosi, as Ferrari presented its challenger for the 2023 Formula 1 championship and even gave fans the chance to see it on track for the first times, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz running for a few laps.
There was no glitzy or overstated ceremonial when the time came for the start of the official car reveal at Fiorano: the Maranello team invited the media and hundreds of Ferrari Club members for this special event, showcased its new SF-23 challenger in a short video in front of the grandstand and invited Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on stage for their first comments and impressions ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign.
However, the most exciting moment for the hundreds of fans at Fiorano and the millions of Tifosi worldwide was the unexpected presence of a genuine SF-23 car in the circuit’s garage. The single-seater for the new season was fired up and took to the track for a few demo laps in front of the fans.
The moment was also marked by a unique tongue-in-cheek toss of the coin recorded one day before in Maranello in order to decide which driver would get to take to the track first, given the fact that for now there is only one car assembled, which is now on its way to Bahrain for the pre-season testing sessions scheduled next week.
Charles Leclerc was the lucky one and therefore got the opportunity to drive the SF-23 first, while his Maranello teammate was second but could do one extra lap of the Fiorino circuit as a compensation.
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The car presentation was clearly special and very different from the static or virtual videos put together by Ferrari’s rivals and was a massive success among the fans and the media:
“This is a good feeling,” admitted a happy Frederic Vasseur. “The look of the launch of the other teams I think it was a bit virtual or online. I don’t want to speak about the others. I haven’t looked carefully at the other cars because the launches are often ‘fake’ and the real cars only come later, but I’m more than proud to do something like this with all the tifosi around the track, with guests, it’s a really big event and for us it’s the best way to start the season.” – the French manager explained.
Spanish driver Carlos Sainz was also very thrilled for this special moment and how the car launch had gone, pointing out however that it had been a “high risk” affair for the Italian side:
“I think we’ve nailed it, to be honest,” he said. “I think a launch like this is also a bit what’s missing in Formula 1: getting the fans involved, getting the media, getting the partners involved. It’s been a great day. First thing that I’m positive about is in everything that we did today, nothing went wrong, everything went perfect. It was actually relatively high risk, you want to put up a brand new F1 car on track in front of so many people and to actually get to enjoy it without a single problem on track.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
Today, the two Ferrari driver will once again hit the track in Fiorano, this time for the first real running of the SF-23 car, as the Maranello team will conduct a proper shakedown: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will get to run for a total of 100 km, as allowed by the Formula 1 rules and regulation for a filming day.
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