“You can’t imagine the effort made in Maranello.” These comments from Carlos Sainz, just a few days ahead of his home Grand Prix, give an idea of the intensity of the work carried out at the Ferrari factory. Because, yes, no one expected such a negative start from the Scuderia, especially within the Racing Department.
“As I think you have all seen, our start to the season has not been easy at all,” confirms the Spaniard. “But now we want to correct our difficulties and shortcomings,” he adds.
So, Ferrari has chosen to give the car what Carlos Sainz himself defines as a “new direction.” The goal, according to the Spanish driver, is to “make the SF-23 more drivable, more consistent, and better in the race, where we still struggle.”
However, as mentioned, the difficult start to the season must have caught the people at Maranello off guard, forcing them to put in extra work to bring forward the debut of the upgrade package in Barcelona.
“These are updates that should have come much later in the season,” confesses Carlos Sainz. “The entire factory has worked extremely hard so that we could see this package already in Barcelona.”
Charles Leclerc: “Barcelona is a perfect track to understand where we stand”
Moving to the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc stated that the Maranello team does not expect a sudden change in the car’s performance, but rather the updates represent the first step of an evolving process that will continue for a long time.
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“We will bring small improvements at every race,” explains the Monegasque driver. “No massive package, but we believe this is the right direction.”
The idea, according to Charles Leclerc, is to extract the potential that has often remained hidden in the SF-23.
“The car is extremely competitive under certain conditions,” explains #16. “In qualifying or in the early laps with new tires, we are competitive. As soon as we deviate from the ideal condition, we lose downforce. We have worked a lot in this regard, and I believe the updates will help us, not so much in pure performance, but more in the consistency of performance.”
What better test bench for the new updates than the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The Spanish circuit, which will host the Grand Prix this weekend, has always been considered one of the most complete in the world and will provide important feedback on the evolutions made to the SF-23.
“Barcelona is probably the best track to understand where the car stands,” confirms Charles Leclerc – “From this point of view, it is absolutely positive that our updates arrive here. It will be important to understand if we have improved in our weak areas, especially in race pace. Montmelo is the ideal track for this.” – the Monegasque driver concluded ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix.
