Formula One returns to the track just a few days after the race in Baku, this time at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA and for teams the last few days have been a logistical nightmare as they moved the equipment from Baku to the United States. After the long break of four weeks, there will be four Grands Prix in a month, each with very different characteristics.
It will therefore be a challenge to discover what works and what needs to be abandoned on the Ferrari and other cars that need to narrow the gap to the leaders, while Red Bull has nothing more to ask for other than a clean fight between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
The Mexican driver behaved well on the Azerbaijan track, demonstrating that he remains a serious contender for Max Verstappen on city circuits. There is no reason not to see him fighting in Florida this weekend. It is also clear that the fight against Verstappen will get tougher later on. For now, the world championship is a matter within the walls of Milton Keynes, and everyone, from Christian Horner down, knows that they must capitalize on their performance to the fullest before the summer break. Therefore, the RB19 has already been slightly changed in Baku with redesigned sidepods entrances to improve efficiency and quality of load on the floor.
Although it is not yet clear how much the penalty due to the budget cap infringement last year will affect the team, some believe that Red Bull will slow down significantly due to the 10% development penalty, mostly to avoid penalizing work on the 2024 car. Others, however, believe that the disadvantage in wind tunnel hours will be minimal, perhaps in the order of one-tenth. This is not much when we consider that the gap to rivals in races since the beginning of the year is an average of seven-tenths.
The rivals will respond with significant upgrades from Miami to Barcelona to narrow the gap and decide what to do with the 2023 development. Ferrari is committed to establishing how solid the SF-23 is. Developments will go in the direction of gradually modifying the philosophy, but there is still a package to squeeze that can grow.
Charles Leclerc is coming off a perfect weekend in Baku (the first podium of the season), showing that the SF-23 car is on average only 1.5 tenths away from Max Verstappen on fast laps, while Carlos Sainz has the conditions to regain the confidence from Melbourne.
Why Ferrari shines less during races
It’s a combination of mechanics and load from the car’s floor. The SF-23 performs well with new tires and when it’s lighter on fuel. The problem remains during the long middle part of the race, and it’s a matter of making the car work in the corners at the same heights for the 300 km of the race. In Maranello, they are working to introduce targeted updates and improve the setup options from Imola. The engineers know that Miami may not be the best track for the Red car due to certain characteristics.
The three DRS zones will help Aston Martin and Mercedes to catch up in terms of high speeds, not to mention the Red Bull, which gains significantly every time it activates the DRS. As reported by Corriere.it, an updated floor will be used on the Ferrari SF-23 single-seater, with some aerodynamic adjustments to increase the load at medium speeds and fight bouncing. The correlation is reported to be good, and the work is intense. The engineers expect to use it.
So far, the SF-23 has struggled in the cornering speeds between 160 and 200 km/h, when the car develops from 800 kg to 1500 kg of load in the corners, and fuel accounts for more than 5%, slowing down speeds by 3% in the corners. The choice of the rear wing is not clear. Normally, apart from Red Bull, one would expect a medium load configuration, i.e., the spoon wing with a single pylon with more load. Ferrari has used three wing specifications so far, all of which are rather light. The Baku specification was almost the one that was supposed to be used in Miami last year, but then disappeared in the box.
This year, Ferrari is running with more load in the front and less at the rear, theoretically meaning that they could all be in play, so the technicians will also have to evaluate it in terms of the grip they will find on the new asphalt. Without underestimating the hot climate, combined with very unstable weather for Sunday. The SF-23 does not start as the favorite among the teams behind Red Bull, so a good result in Miami would be doubly valuable for Imola.
Three DRS zones: help for Aston Martin and Mercedes
Regarding the opponents: Aston Martin should be strong, it only needs to solve the intermittent problem with the DRS that caused issues on the straights in Baku. Miami has three very important straights where traction and efficient wing on board count. We could also see some small updates on the AMR23, while Mercedes is playing good defense and will wait for Imola to start changing parts of the bodywork and front mechanics of the W14. It seems that the return of James Allison has slightly shifted the development line that was already deliberated, to understand some problems more thoroughly first and only then produce new parts.
Another team under the spotlight is Haas, the Kannapolis team has prepared some updates for the home race. It should be an updated front wing and a new floor. The VF-23 used an interesting wing specification in Melbourne, while in Baku, it used the usual adaptation with the economic cut of the mobile flap but with a less efficient DRS. However, the car behaves well, it needs to find more downforce to be able to afford lighter wings.
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