2023 will be a very long and demanding Formula 1 season, with no less than 23 races on the calendar, six of which also include the Sprint Races on Saturdays, twice as many as last year. The teams will also have to deal with format experiments linked to qualifying on some occasions, so it will not be easy to adapt to all conditions, even if it will be essential to do so, as Ferrari racing director Laurent Mekies explained on the day of the presentation of the SF-23 in an interview for the Italian version of Motorsport:
How difficult is it to manage such a long calendar and keep the team’s performance and morale always at the highest level?
Laurent Mekies: “We think that the best way to deal with such a long calendar is to create the best possible environment in our team. This means creating the conditions to work in the best atmosphere, in an environment that can allow everyone to express themselves at their best. Then, of course, we have decided to take a path that is perhaps a little difficult. We have decided to take the approach of rotation. Where possible, we will rotate our team. Of course, this will not apply to every member of the team, but where we see that it will be possible to do so between the factory guys and the track guys, we’ll do a slight rotation, so that the calendar can be a little shorter for some people and there’s more connection to the factory. At the same time we will try to create a protective bubble around the team as part of the wellbeing program we have put in place for people traveling with us, to take care of their physical and mental well-being. We want to try to have a 360-degree programme, to best support them throughout such a long season, but nobody should forget that we do the best job in the world, so we have to do it with a smile on our faces.”
In 2023 there will be six Sprint Races and experimental qualifying with different tire allocations. How did you prepare for this scenario?
“In 2023 only 13 races will have a standard format. So, we will have these 13 races as we are used to and then we will have the 6 Sprint Races which require different procedures, as well as a different preparation for the race weekend. Then there will be two races in which we will have to test for Pirelli during FP2 and, finally, a novelty for 2023: two races in which we will try an alternative tire allocation for qualifying. The drivers will have to use the hards in Q1, the mediums in Q2 and the softs in Q3. So, as you can understand, there will be only 13 ‘normal’ races, with many variations for all the others. It will be the same for everyone, but for us it means an extra level of attention to make sure we arrive as prepared as possible and do so that our procedures run smoothly, and that we deal with all operations and regulation implications in the best possible way”.
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