It was a negative weekend for Scuderia Ferrari at the Miami International Autodrome in Florida, USA. After the encouraging signs from the three-day event in Baku, the Maranello team arrived confident that they could confirm the progress made in Azerbaijan and solidify their position as the second strongest team behind Red Bull, aided by the first upgrades to the SF-23.
Unfortunately, these expectations were not met, as the Italian side’s car appeared slow and difficult to drive and fine-tune since the first free practice session on Friday. They never managed to perform at a level comparable to Red Bull, Aston Martin, or Mercedes. The weekend, according to the data, set Ferrari back by a month, nullifying the progress made in understanding and improving the SF-23 car.
In Miami, the Ferrari SF-23 never performed well, exhibiting significant drivability problems (too nervous on curbs) and tire management issues with both drivers and both tire compounds during the race. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz struggled to make the Pirelli tires work properly during the 57 laps of the race. Charles failed to make the medium tires work during the first stint of the race, increasing the pace with the hard ones towards the end. Meanwhile, Carlos struggled with the harder compound towards the end, performing better with the softer tires.
This abnormal behavior could not be justified simply by incorrect functioning of the new upgrades or by congenital flaws of the 2023 Formula 1 project. The Maranello team analyzed the issue thoroughly and honestly during the post-race briefing. According to ‘Motorsport.com’, the Ferrari technicians found that some mistakes were made by themselves (during setup deliberation and on-track work) and were part of the causes for the the American flop.
“The Miami flop, more than a technical debacle, would have been due to a sequence of wrong choices. […] Shared responsibility and no finger-pointing, which is a common practice in the Ferrari Sporting Management, would have emerged.”
Ferrari is determined not to repeat this flop by improving their work methodology and continuing to push in understanding and developing the car. The development should change the shape of the SF-23 and make it resemble the RB19 from a design point of view.
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“Ferrari is taking a path that will bring the SF-23 closer to the Red Bull aerodynamic concepts as much as possible. […] These are not developments planned at the beginning of the season, but orientation corrections in an attempt to extract the potential that can be sensed but not seen from the red car.”
A development work that started months ago and was then corrected, strengthened, and improved after the first races of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, and it must be said, has already showed positive feedback in Miami, where the new floor made its debut, completely redesigned in terms of Venturi tunnel design.
“On the new floor, […] the Venturi tunnel design has been revolutionized: the internal flows are directed differently to increase the load generated under the single-seater, so it is all too evident that the aerodynamic platform on which to build a setup has been changed.”
An underbody that was only the first of a series of innovations which will be introduced on the Italian car, starting from Imola (where the new rear suspension will arrive, which should allow the SF-23 to be less sensitive to height variations).
“At Imola, in addition to the new floor, the long-awaited rear suspension will be introduced, which will allow for a mechanical setup more suited to the ground heights needed to produce downforce.”
After Imola, the latest developments will arrive in Barcelona where the new RB19-style side pods will be introduced. There will also be innovations in managing the flows exiting the car body to maximize the efficiency of the beam wing and bridge the gap, with DRS open, from Red Bull.
“The lower-flared side pods will serve to improve the efficiency of the underbody. […] And to make the beam wing more effective, it is not excluded that the extraction of hot air in the upper area of the side pods will be changed. The radiating masses remained in the same position, but many ducts have been moved.”
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