The 2022 Formula 1 season represented a great unknown in terms of the values on track in light of the technical and regulation changes that came into force at the start of the championship, one year late compared to the initial plan (the pandemic led the teams and the top management of Formula 1 to take the decision to extend the previous generation of cars for one more season in order to reduce the development and design costs in a very difficult financial moment).
Indeed, hierarchy on track has changed compared to the 2021 F1 campaign in the sense that the challenger for Red Bull was Scuderia Ferrari and not Mercedes, while Alpine regained fourth place against McLaren with a clear rise from Alfa Romeo and Haas compared to 2021 (sixth and eighth respectively in the Constructors’ standings after ninth and tenth place the previous year).
Now in view of 2023, curiosity is all about the improvement that the 2022 projects will be able to achieve in terms of pace and performance. Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes on paper have all three decided not to completely change the design philosophy behind the F1-75, RB18 and W13 although the latter only allowed the Brackley team to take one single race during the 2022 championship, in Brazil with George Russell. As far as the Maranello team is concerned, project 675 will be unveiled on February 14 but for now comforting signs and great confidence are arriving from many directions regarding the performance and competitiveness of the 2023 Ferrari F1 car.
The latest confirmation of the solid prospects that the Italian side’s car has next year came from Andrea Stella, a former Maranello technician who is now freshly appointed as McLaren team principal after Andreas Seidl’s decided to move to Sauber to focus on the Audi project: “The teams to beat again in the next Formula 1 season are Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, who are currently competing in a different category from ours” – Andrea Stella said on the occasion of an award received in his home town Orvieto at the end of the year – “I expect an important reaction from Mercedes even though I know that the people at Ferrari are very happy with the new car and therefore will certainly have a competitive start” – added Andrea Stella, who began his career at Ferrari in 2000 as Performance Engineer for the test team and become Race Engineer for Kimi Räikkönen (2009) and Fernando Alonso (2010–2014).
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McLaren, on the other hand, will have to grit its teeth at the start of the 2023 Formula 1 season, but on the long-term, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be able to get closer to the top teams, according to new McLaren boss Andrea Stella: “I still expect a difficult start, but I’m optimistic for the second part of the season. The most important goal is to make a fast car. We need to recover a second, a second and a half to the others.” – he concluded.
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