Another pole not converted into a victory
It’s becoming an unfortunate scenario: Scuderia Ferrari often secures pole position but struggles to maintain the lead in the race on Sunday. In Mexico, despite an entire all-Red front row, Max Verstappen took the lead already in Turn 1.
“Queen for a lap. From Monza onwards, Ferrari has secured four poles. That’s not a small number. But it has only won on the night in Singapore,” writes Leo Turrini in Il Resto del Carlino at the end of the Mexican Grand Prix, highlighting that in Maranello, there seems to be a problem related to Sundays that transcends the tools at their disposal, which are all cutting-edge.
“Scuderia Ferrari exhausts its geometric power on the flying lap. Unfortunately, it’s an age-old problem. I’ve been hearing about it, without exaggeration, for about a dozen years. And since we cannot doubt the preparation of the Maranello engineers, it’s clear that we’re facing an organizational and cultural deficit. By this, I mean it’s essential to enhance the available skills, even if it means looking for the human resources elsewhere if necessary.” – the Italian journalist continued following the Mexico City Grand Prix.
At the start of the 2023 Formula One season, Frederic Vasseur had pointed out that an area among the technical ones needed reinforcements. Regarding tire management, the acquisition of Loic Serra from Mercedes could be more than fitting. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen continues to collect successes, as Stefano Mancini highlights in La Stampa: “The Ferrari front row only lasts for the blink of an eye. Verstappen squeezes in between the two Reds, overtakes, and speeds away. He has an appointment with history: Alain Prost’s 51 victories. Done. Only Sebastian Vettel (53, he could pass him already this year), Michael Schumacher (91), and Lewis Hamilton (103) shine brighter in front of the Dutch driver. SuperMax’s golden season continues in the Mexican Grand Prix. He promised that he would try to overtake the Ferraris immediately and keeps his word: the 16th win of the season, another record. Unfortunately for Ferrari, in the second part of the race, they lost positions compared to the start. Lewis Hamilton moved up to second place ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Norris in fifth with McLaren, followed by Russell.” – Stefano Mancini pointed out.
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In Mexico, Ferrari opted for a one-stop strategy, but regardless of the red flag that reset everything in the middle of the race, the hard compound didn’t work well on the SF-23 cars, which had to defend rather than attack: “A bleak life for Charles: another pole not converted, the second in a row. The strategy of mounting hard tires on both the red cars at the restart doesn’t pay off,” notes Alessandra Retico in Repubblica, “the front row vanished in the first 800 meters.”
