Fred Vasseur optimistic for Baku: "Working hard in Maranello on development of SF-23"

Fred Vasseur optimistic for Baku: “Working hard in Maranello on development of SF-23”. Fred Vasseur optimistic for Baku.

Ferrari, ready to restart in Baku
Formula 1 returns to Baku, and for Scuderia Ferrari it will be an important test to understand the competitiveness of the SF-23 after a month-long break. The break has helped recharge the batteries and understand better the potential of the 2023 Formula 1 car, which was not fully exploited in the first three races of the current season.

Sakhir, Jeddah, and Melbourne have been bitter races for the Ferrari team, with Charles Leclerc receiving a penalty in the second race, resulting in only six points in the first three races, with two retirements. Carlos Sainz also wants to take advantage of the Azerbaijan circuit to restart and forget the penalty he received in Australia. It is worth noting that Baku 2022, before Melbourne 2023, was the last time Ferrari did not score any points in a weekend, with both Sainz and Leclerc suffering from a severe reliability problem in the 2022 edition.

Fred Vasseur’s words
The team principal Frederic Vasseur commented on the upcoming weekend: “It’s been almost a month since the last Grand Prix and in that time we have been working hard in Maranello on the development of the SF-23, both in terms of improving the current car package as well as moving forward with the planned updates that will be gradually introduced over the course of the coming races. Charles and Carlos have played their part, working in the simulator and giving us feedback. In Australia, we had already made a step forward in terms of pure performance and for Azerbaijan, we expect to move on from there.” – the French manager said, as reported by the Maranello team on it’s official website earlier today.

Ferrari in Baku
It is the seventh time that Formula 1 has raced in Azerbaijan, and this is also the first of the six race weekends of the 2023 Formula One championship that are taking place based on the Sprint format, which suffered some changes yesterday thanks to the vote of the F1 Commission. In six races held on the Azerbaijan street circuit, Scuderia Ferrari has never won, despite starting half of the time from pole position (twice with Charles Leclerc, once with Sebastian Vettel): the best result was a second place, scored in 2016 by Sebastian Vettel and two years later by Kimi Raikkonen.