Without a doubt, the current form at the start of the 2023 Formula One season is far from what the Maranello team had hoped for during the winter, especially in terms of race pace, where the SF-23’s greatest limits have been highlighted in every round so far.
Over long distances, the gap to the Red Bull RB19 cars in some occasions can reach even around one second per lap, whereas on a single lap the new Italian car seemed capable of fighting for notable positions, even collecting a pole position in Azerbaijan. Although the characteristics of the track helped to mitigate some of the car’s flaws, enhancing its strong points, instead with new tyres the SF-23 has shown to not be too far from the top.
In fact, Charles Leclerc is so far the only non-Red Bull driver to have claimed a pole position, with the Monegasque driver taking the best time in both practice sessions in Baku. Even without the pole, it is evident that the gap from the Milton Keynes team is significantly lower on a single lap, as shown by the times obtained in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Although Ferrari was not able to convert at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA, in reality Charles Leclerc seemed to have the potential to finish about a tenth of a second behind Sergio Perez, a gap that is relatively small.
However, in the race, the limits of a project that still needs to find its definitive identity emerge, especially related to tire management, not only in terms of degradation but also in terms of flexibility, with clear difficulties in managing temperatures. This is a problem that the Scuderia Ferrari team believes it has understood and for this reason, in addition to the development program, continuous experiments are underway on the setup side.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
“We have a good understanding of the problems. It’s a matter of quantifying, if you know what I mean. So, in a sense, we can say, ‘OK, looking at what happens in the race compared to what happens in qualifying, we can see some differences.’ Maybe we can’t align ourselves on how these differences manifest themselves. And I think the process we’re going through right now is to figure out what we can do or what we can change to bring race pace back in line,” explained Jock Clear.
According to the English senior performance engineer, this difference in terms of the gap from the top from one day to the next can be explained by the fact that Red Bull sacrifices pure performance in qualifying to maximize race pace, also given the wide advantage they have over the competition. Already last year, the RB18 seemed to perform better over the long distance rather than attacking for the fastest lap time, a trend that has been further amplified this year, taking advantage of the less-than-exceptional form of their rivals.
A path that, according to Jock Clear, Ferrari could also follow for the rest of the championship, but without completely sacrificing pure performance, also because having a better starting position can play a decisive role in such a tight challenge with Aston Martin and Mercedes.
“Perhaps, do we have to give up something in qualifying? And this is always a very difficult pill to swallow. Because very often races are won in qualifying. So we cannot afford to lose sight of qualifying. But certainly, we have to fully understand how to improve race pace, we have to take our hats off to Red Bull and say that they are doing something very, very smart” – Jock Clear continued – “And that car [the RB19] works very, very well on race pace. We could also conclude that maybe they are sacrificing a bit of pace in qualifying to do so. That’s why we can compete with them [on a single lap], because they are not optimal in qualifying” – the English senior performance engineer concluded.
Leave a Reply