The American Grand Prix weekend unfortunately showed a struggling Scuderia Ferrari, both in the qualifying session and in terms of race pace. During Sunday’s race, the Maranello car showed other limitations, with significantly lower top speeds compared to other competitors. After the debut of the new floor and updated diffuser, the results did not reflect the expectations of technicians and drivers. Let’s try to discover what could be the causes behind the poor speed of the Ferrari SF-23 on the straights in the Miami Grand Prix.
Very narrow speed delta
The behavior of the Ferrari during the American weekend was unpredictable. Even the drivers confirmed this difficulty in driving the prancing horse’s car. The updates did not bring the expected improvements and raise many questions about how good this project actually is. However, what negatively impressed were the top speeds developed by the SF-23 single-seater.
The episode we are referring to is the battle with Kevin Magnussen on board the Haas VF-23, also powered by Ferrari. On lap 3, Kevin Magnussen was ahead of Charles Leclerc, with the latter in the DRS zone approaching the straight between turns 16 and 17. When the DRS was activated, the difference between the VF-23 and SF-23 was only 6 km/h. Once Charles Leclerc’s DRS was open, his km/h increased but plateaued at 330 km/h just out of the slipstream. This value would not be bad, but Kevin Magnussen’s top speed is 325 km/h.
This small delta did not allow the Monegasque driver to easily close the gap, so much so that on the main straight, Kevin Magnussen was able to overtake him after being passed. Here the VF-23 was able to reach 300 km/h, unlike the SF-23 which stopped at only 282 km/h, creating a delta of 18 km/h. What makes the speed gap even greater is the top speed of Max Verstappen who was following both of them. In fact, the Dutchman’s RB19 reached 314 km/h, 32 km/h faster than Charles Leclerc. At the end of the article, a video is added to see all the speed deltas described in this paragraph.
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The Ferrari SF-23 Superfast is not so fast
What could be the reasons behind such a large speed delta between the SF-23, VF-23, and RB19? The first can be attributed to the choices made regarding aerodynamic setup, while the second is related to the mapping of the power unit. Analyzing the first one, the technicians’ choices led to the use of a single-pillar wing at the rear to have a good compromise between downforce and aerodynamic resistance, without excessively penalizing top speeds. Looking at the power unit side, some doubts arise about its actual power. In fact, recent rumors have revealed that the 066/7 2023 may be far from expressing its full power. This data could also be confirmed when Charles Leclerc was caught in the final stages of the race. Here the Monegasque driver was only able to reach 309 km/h, well below the speed of 325 km/h reached by Magnussen in the episode described earlier.
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