The seventh round of the Formula 1 World Championship could represent the beginning of a new Formula One season, but perhaps not for Scuderia Ferrari. While awaiting confirmation, the Mercedes team showcased a very consistent performance that positions them as potential challengers to Max Verstappen, although no one is really able to get close to the Dutchman at this stage.
Once again, the difference in performance was evident as the world champion outperformed his teammate in every session of the weekend.
Just consider that George Russell, starting behind the Mexican driver, staged an impressive comeback that allowed him to claim the lowest step on the podium. Teams are progressively making the first modifications to their cars, and within this evolutionary process, noticeable changes in the balance of power are already emerging. For example, the excellent AMR23 appeared to be a shadow of the car seen in the early races of the season. At the same time, McLaren’s progress is palpable as they recover from a shocking start.
And Ferrari? After the cancellation of the Imola round, a true “B” version of the SF-23 debuted in Spain, with visible modifications in various areas. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, always an unforgiving judge of the technical prowess of the cars, highlighted the same limitations of the base specification of the Maranello’s red car. Tire management once again proved to be the main weakness for the cars entrusted to Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
The current level of competitiveness of the SF-23 forces us to focus on its performance rather than the disappointing result for the historic Maranello team. It should be noted that the performance of the tire compounds provided by Pirelli has disoriented the teams as the degradation level of the compounds was much lower than anticipated.
For example, Carlos Sainz had a respectable first stint on used red tires, only to struggle tremendously with the medium tires. For his Monegasque teammate, the 66 laps completed in Barcelona last weekend were pure suffering. The first stint on hard tires was disastrous. With none of the tire options, the SF-23 “B” managed to deliver a consistent performance.
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At no point during the race did it seem that the drivers of the red cars could benefit from strategic choices. In the laps following the undercut, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were lapping at similar times as their competitors engaged in the pitstop shuffle. Apart from the exceptional Max, who was able to showcase the qualities of the RB19 in any condition, perhaps the relatively low track temperatures affected the performance of the Prancing Horse cars.
Ferrari: dark faces at the end of the race
In Formula 1, miracles don’t exist, but the men from Maranello were expecting encouraging signs from their trip in Spain. Instead, the seventh round of the 2023 Formula One season followed the same script as the previous races. Excellent performance in qualifying, disastrous tire management during the race. The body language of Carlos and Charles in the post-race interviews speaks louder than a thousand words.
The driver from Madrid timidly asserted that there has been an improvement provided by the updates, but the layout of the track, with many high-speed corners, didn’t allow the performance step to be highlighted, confirming that tire degradation remains the main limitation of the car. Unlike Carlos, who finished fifth, Charles Leclerc couldn’t enter the points zone after starting from the pit lane. Charles’ gaze is now lost in emptiness.
The driver from the Principality of Monaco stated that he is completely disoriented by the behavior of the SF-23, which suffered greatly in the first stint with the same compound (hard, note), while in the third part of the race, still on hard tires, he managed to show a respectable pace. A performance volatility that is putting not only the driving skills of the Monegasque to the test but also the emotional aspect. The SF-23 is an impossible car to understand, labeled as such by Charles Leclerc, even in its evolved version.
Rarely have we seen the Monegasque driver completely bewildered as in the post-race of the Spanish Grand Prix. Last but not least, Frederic Vasseur’s race analysis leaves us perplexed. The French manager speaks of a gap of one to two seconds compared to the car’s real potential, which probably was only seen in the simulator. The Ferrari team principal expresses satisfaction for having “beaten” Aston Martin and “surprise” regarding the performance step made by Mercedes.
The feeling is that the team principal of Scuderia Ferrari finds himself in the midst of a storm that probably requires a different communication style. In the Spanish round, there is no half-full glass. Carlos Sainz’s arrival at the finish line ahead of Aston Martin is the bare minimum if you are called Ferrari. Being soundly beaten by Mercedes with the same “invasive” updates should make one reflect. The real surprise is being in the midfield without having solved the problems afflicting the 675 project, as explained by F1 expert Roberto Cecere for FUnoanalisitecnica.
The 45-second gap inflicted by Max Verstappen on Carlos Sainz during a race unaffected by any neutralizations amounts to about 7 tenths per lap. An unacceptable result from which the Maranello team has to restart with humility and a strong sense of self-criticism, avoiding getting carried away by useless Saturday placements or sterile victories over teams that are clearly inferior in terms of resources and infrastructure.
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