Ferrari: 'SF-23 has potential but it may not be enough to catch up with Red Bull'

Unfortunately, at the Jeddah Corniche circuit things didn’t go in the right direction that Scuderia Ferrari had hoped for ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, with the Ferrari Team Principal who, in the classic post-GP press conference, admitted to being disappointed by the two faces of the SF-23 single seater: “I can’t think of a car that is able to go on the front row in qualifying and then in the race it struggles like that” – Frederic Vasseur pointed out.

The characteristics of the Jeddah circuit made the men from Maranello optimistic, with the aim of getting closer to Red Bull and being second in front of Aston Martin and Mercedes. The Grand Prix instead showed an Italian side in clear difficulty, even dropping to the status of fourth force at the end of the race, also behind its two main rivals, Mercedes and Aston Martin.

Following the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the two drivers admitted the reality of the facts, maintaining the hope, however, that the updates can restore some performance to this car, but not looking at the RB19 which is from another planet as compared to everyone else – to recover at least the status of second team behind the Austrian side.

The Monegasque admits that the result is not entirely surprising, even if in the post-qualifying session he indicated the podium as a target for his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz and outlines the break after Australia as an opportunity to react and fight back. Carlos Sainz repeats the same concepts underlining the weak points of this project: tire degradation and a slower race pace than the competitors.

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Fred Vasseur: “Compared to Bahrain we improved on a flying lap and race pace in the first stint, but the difficulties with the Hard tires need to be resolved”.
Fans and paddock insiders are now starting to get to know the new Ferrari Team Principal a little better, also in his ways of doing things. An expression dear to him is ‘clear picture’, i.e. a clear vision of the situation. A photo. Certainly from Ferrari it is clear that the SF-23 is not where the technicians thought it could be at the start of the 2023 Formula One season and that something went wrong in the winter development work. Problems of correlation? The Frenchman continues to deny this possibility, attributing the poor performance to the better work done by Red Bull and Aston Martin and also to a difficulty in extracting the maximum potential from this car.

“Compared to Bahrain we took a step forward in the flying lap. I know it’s strange to say this after today’s result, but I think we were in better shape than two weeks ago as we managed to open a gap on Aston Martin and Mercedes in qualifying.” team principal Frederic Vasseur analyzed at the end of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – “Even in the race the first stint was very good. Charles moved up quickly managing the Soft well and Carlos, with the medium, was there with Russell and Stroll in the DRS train ”. So how does the former Alfa Romeo Sauber man explain this new poor display of performance from the Reds? “With the Hard we compromised all the good things that we saw in qualifying and in the first part of the race. With that tire we lost pace. We have to understand why. That’s our main problem.” – the French manager underlined.

Already on the Sahkir circuit, the SF-23 had encountered a drop in performance once the Hards were fitted. As if the SF-23 lacked downforce, which makes the car slow especially when running on that compound. All of this is accentuated by the harder tyres, with the drivers who, despite pushing hard, are not able to match the times of their rivals, with the consequence of ending up using the tires more.

Fred Vasseur was then also honest – unable to do otherwise – when asked about the gap on Red Bull and the difficulties compared to Aston Martin and Mercedes. “After the Safety Car, Red Bull gave us something like 25 seconds in 30 laps. Very very much. I am sure our car has a lot of potential but it may not be enough to catch up with Red Bull”. Somehow, however, the Frenchman sees hope even when looking at one of his direct competitors. “Aston Martin? Let’s say that it gives us a little hope because it shows that progress is possible by working”. A positive aspect (in a forced way) in a very disappointing and worrying race.