Ferrari SF-23: does Red Bull aerodynamic concept have more development possibilities?

One of the most talked-about topics of this start to the 2023 Formula One season can only be related to the poor pace and performance of Scuderia Ferrari, especially after the very positive impressions expressed at the presentation of the SF-23 car. This year’s challenger is in fact an evolution of the F1-75, which for the first half of the previous season had given the Red Bull RB18 a hard time.

According to former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, the development of the car was stopped in the summer to focus on what, to all intents and purposes, should have been the real car to aim for the Formula 1 world championship. Above all, the problems of reliability had in fact convinced the men from Maranello that it would have been impossible to compete for the world championship against Red Bull up to Abu Dhabi. The introduction of Technical Directive 39 definitively knocked out the ‘underdeveloped’ F1-75. The SF-23 seems to still suffer from the issues of the problematic (post-Technical Directive 39) 2022 F1 car, working in a small operating window. It is legitimate to ask whether the problems arise from a question of limited concept, similar to what was seen with Mercedes, or something else.

Ferrari SF-23: is the aerodynamic concept the problem? Fred Vasseur denies it while Carlos Sainz adds fuel to the fire.
The first questions have already been asked to the directly interested parties and as the French team principal himself said after Jeddah, “it is my job to motivate the group, but the first thing I will say is not to bullshit each other”. At this stage it is very important to be clear, especially internally (between departments), but also externally, with the press. If internally, before the SF-23 took to the track, there was a lot of euphoria due to the excellent data coming out of the Maranello simulation instruments, now that the situation hasn’t come true on the track, similar to what happened with the W13 Bahrain Spec last year, the press demanded answers.

And here we notice a communication so far not univocal, with parallel lines which by their definition meet (mathematically) only at infinity. “Is it a matter of aerodynamic concept? No. We are doing well in qualifying and in the first stint here in Saudi Arabia we were at a good level. We just have to be able to extract the potential of this car for the whole weekend and in all conditions” said Fred Vasseur, commenting the race in which both SF-23s were totally lost using the Hard compound, even ending the race as the fourth fastest car on the track, when the goal was to challenge Aston Martin for second.

A week of analysis and we find the two drivers – Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz – with an approach and comments a little different from those of their boss, waiting for Fred Vasseur, if necessary, to possibly update his thoughts. “Red Bull is superior in everything: tire management, speed on the straights, slow, medium-fast corners, aerodynamic bouncing, bumps…” – said Carlos Sainz – “They have a clear advantage and this shows that we have to change something . Our car doesn’t have a major problem, but the operating window is very small and this makes it unpredictable”.

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And here comes the most interesting part of his statements: “But clearly looking at how the cars have developed, the possibilities of developing the Red Bull concept are much higher than those of our project. The extremely good performance at the beginning of 2022 prompted us to continue with this concept but I think now we have to start looking elsewhere” explained the Spanish driver, clearly questioning the aerodynamic concept of the SF-23. An idea which looks a bit like that of Mercedes, whose excellent performances at the end of 2022 gave aerodynamicist Mike Elliott and his men the last chance to focus again on the zeropods concept, now completely abandoned in the wind tunnel.

Ferrari SF-23: in Australia the goal is to use in the race the floor ‘correlated’ in Saudi Arabia
You shouldn’t expect miracles in Melbourne, this is the key point of Charles Leclerc’s thinking in view of the weekend that will begin in a few hours. The same goes for Carlos Sainz, who has targeted Mercedes and – he also hopes – that Aston Martin is not too far from them. In the meantime, the work in Maranello has intensified and is proceeding quickly to bring updates, including important ones, to the series of races that will start from Baku and arrive (at least) in Barcelona, i.e. the period after the four-week break due to the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix. You can read more details about the updates here.

In Australia, the Ferrari SF-23 will be presented with the aerodynamic configuration used in Jeddah, thus confirming the new front wing introduced, although the previous specification is also at the track, as well as the much talked about medium-load rear wing with a single pylon. Red Bull has brought both specifications used so far to Australia; the medium downforce one, seen in Bahrain, is currently mounted on Sergio Perez’s car, while Max Verstappen has remained in the medium-low specification from Jeddah. The presence of four DRS zones will make the choice of a more loaded wing less penalizing in qualifying.

Returning to Ferrari, a new floor was introduced in Jeddah free practice, recognizable by the modification in front of the rear wheels, which now features an upward bend to better manage the turbulence generated by the rear tyres. A basic specification which, as anticipated, had been brought to Arabia only for “data collection useful for future use”. In short, in Maranello they wanted to remove any doubts about the correlation, anticipating the introduction of a floor by one GP that had been approved even before the SF-23s took to the track in Bahrain, as explained by F1 experts Piergiuseppe Donadoni and Paolo D’Alessandro for formu1a.uno.

So not a version designed afterwards, to correct the small operating window of the SF-23 but only as a first evolution of the basic specification. A floor that will be tested again in free practice at the Australian GP, with the aim of keeping it in the car for the whole weekend, while waiting for more substantial updates which, as mentioned above, will arrive in the appointments after the break, with a development program that was already defined in February up to the Spanish GP.