Ferrari relies on stability, but skepticism arises from recent past. Ferrari: Skepticism Arising from Recent Past.

Salvaging what can be saved. This is Ferrari’s approach when analyzing the World Championship, which, beyond the sporadic victory in Singapore, has been a constant maneuvering through difficulties that were not foreseen last winter, considering 2023 as the year of definitive resurgence. At GeS, starting with Frédéric Vasseur, no one intends to throw the car out with the bathwater, and they are trying to assess whether the strengths (few) emerged in nine months of racing can be the basis for building a more solid future.

So, even in a disappointing season where the minimum goals set at the beginning of the year were not achieved, there is something that Ferrari can take as a positive value to work on. The absolute is represented by reacting to the technical crisis that enveloped the team before the summer. After the break, the gap from the second position exceeded seventy points; in the middle of the season, the Prancing Horse managed to recover almost all the deficit from Mercedes.

If the catch-up didn’t happen, it’s due to certain details that didn’t work well and are aimed at stabilizing next year. Fred Vasseur, after the conclusion in Abu Dhabi, outlined the programmatic manifesto for the immediate future: “We shouldn’t overhaul everything in 2024 when we’re three to four tenths behind.”

“Even at Red Bull,” continued the team principal, “they don’t have a magic wand. They’re just doing a better job. We lost a lot of points due to reliability, on-track operations, and impeding. We shouldn’t focus on just one area.”

In Ferrari, it seems evident that they haven’t focused on the less-than-brilliant final results but rather on the path taken to emerge from a phase where the SF-23 seemed to be the fourth force in the championship to become, in certain circumstances, the second. It’s not the goal, but the journey that instills confidence in the Italian environment. Is this enough to imagine a 2024 full of hopeful prospects? Not everyone thinks so.

Opinions, though legitimate, remain opinions. They should be reported, possibly discussed, but never taken as objective truths on which to base irrevocable judgments. Christian Danner, a former German F1 driver with 36 starts, has expressed his views on the Prancing Horse, and it was not gentle:

“Ferrari is once again a case, with many question marks. Their performances have been very inconsistent. They are far from the stability the team needs to have a car that works immediately. Frédéric Vasseur has a huge job to do, and I don’t know how he intends to resolve the issue in terms of personnel. From an organizational point of view, I think he can do it; from a technical standpoint, I don’t know.”

Ferrari: Skepticism Arising from Recent Past
Perhaps recent history is causing some skepticism. In fact, Maranello has not stood out in recent times for linear choices. Mood has often prevailed, but it seems that the course has been reversed with the Vasseur administration, which has the solid support (for now) of Benedetto Vigna and, above all, John Elkann, who seems more interested in red matters than in the past. Better late than never…

The historic Maranello franchise must try to present itself as the first entity capable of dueling with Red Bull. Aston Martin has weakened along the way, leaving McLaren and Mercedes as the most likely closer competitors. While Woking has shown a burgeoning growth, the same cannot be said for the Anglo-German team, which, despite finishing ahead of Ferrari (by only three points), has seen a lead of over 70 points erode since the resumption of the mid-season break.

An unequivocal signal that Christian Danner reads as an indication that things may continue on a negative trend next year. “At the beginning, they made a fundamental mistake: presenting themselves again with the old car concept,” explained the former driver to sport.de. “It was a catastrophic decision. I don’t understand how it could happen. The new concept was a bit less toxic but not faster either.”

Christian Danner fears that those who made decisions so blatantly wrong, seeing themselves overtaken, in practice, even by McLaren (a customer team) in terms of performance, may indicate that the team has lost clarity: “If McLaren can do it, Mercedes must do it too. They have been a great disappointment.”

Precisely because of these difficulties, Ferrari has the opportunity to wedge itself into a kind of void that could arise behind Red Bull, which, without getting carried away by vain illusions, remains the most favored team to prevail even in 2024 and perhaps in 2025, the last two championships under the current regulatory framework. Technically speaking, cars tend to converge, but it is certainly more complex to replicate the organizational model set by Milton Keynes, which is based on exceptional longevity for a sport fast in changes like Formula 1.

Therefore, Christian Danner’s fears are not groundless, even if Fred Vasseur and the people he controls are convinced that they have understood the difficulties encountered in the 2023 Formula 1 season, which was a great training ground for a 24-race championship that will be the longest and most intense in the history of F1. Ferrari wants to start with a valid vehicle and, as done this year, grow during the year to be a thorn in the side of Red Bull. To the dismay of those who believe that there will be no competition.