Scuderia Ferrari is not maximizing its potential and, at present, still shows uncertainties in terms of race pace. The SF-23 car has superior speed, but tire management does not allow the Italian side to properly capitalize on its characteristics. The necessary introduction is followed by a report of the Miami Grand Prix, which has expressed certain clear verdicts.
At the start of the 2023 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix last weekend, the front runners opted for the yellow tire, which offers a higher working range than the soft compound, that could have suffered greatly in the high temperatures of Florida. The rear compounds, in many parts of the track, are longitudinally stressed, and the possibility of blistering was quite high. Fernando Alonso, for example, let the team know in the early laps that they had to switch to “Plan A-12.” This means that compared to the original strategy, the AMR23 had to stop 12 laps earlier.
As we can see from the table below provided by FUnoanalisitecnica, the report on the available compounds before the start, the two-time Spanish world champion, unlike his competitors, started the race with used Pirellis on the yellow band. The driver from Oviedo started the race without a set of new tires.
During the very early stages of the Grand Prix, Sergio Perez immediately tried to build a safety gap in front of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver still managed to stay close to his compatriot, while maintaining a certain distance to avoid overheating the tires in an attempt to manage the compounds produced by the Italian manufacturer.
Starting from the back with Charles Leclerc, the Maranello team’s pit wall opted for a train of unused medium tires. A choice aimed at gaining some positions right from the start, which unfortunately did not work properly. Max Verstappen, on the hard tire, immediately produced a very good pace. The RB19 is always very effective in pairing hard tires and fuel, with the Austrian car able to express a behavior very similar to that of a fast lap.
The Milton Keynes team has structured a car capable of properly working the floor even with 100kg of fuel on board. We explained in detail in recent days the reasons for this winning characteristic. The suspension system of the RB19 has a rather rigid kinematics, already since last year. The difference, in these cases, is mainly obtained in the roll phases.
Let’s now analyze the data from the first stint carried out by the majority with the yellow tire, as explained by the FUnoanalisitecnica Italian website. The times have been processed and corrected in relation to the weight effect, a tool that allows us to calculate the actual wear of the compounds. Although Sergio Perez showed a higher level of tire degradation, the Ferrari SF-23 did not experience significantly greater degradation than the Aston Martin.
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Charles Leclerc and George Russell were the first of the big names to make a pit stop, opting to switch to the Hard compound. The young Monegasque talent found himself a bit stuck on the track, and as a result, the strategists of the Maranello team decided to call him in to change to the harder tire. Furthermore, George Russell tried to anticipate his stop compared to the red car to avoid being undercut. Both then visited their mechanics again during the same lap, ending up in traffic with slower cars.
Carlos Sainz returned to the pit lane on lap 21 when he was very close to Fernando Alonso. The goal was to try an undercut on his opponent, but once he made the pit stop, he found himself behind Nico Hulkenberg, quickly seeking to overtake him. Fernando then decided not to pit, hoping for an event on the track, perhaps taking advantage of a Safety Car. The advantage came later when he was able to “exploit” the 5-second penalty imposed on his rival for speeding in the pit lane.
Max Verstappen went very long to take advantage of the extended life for the white tire. Based on the duration of the Hard tire, Red Bull could have even chosen to mount the Softs, discarding the Mediums. However, the Dutchman showed some difficulty with his tires. He complained a lot about the front-limited attitude of his Red Bull, with a balance more shifted towards understeer. This peculiarity bothered him especially in faster corners, while Sergio Perez, with a more functional setup, managed to be faster in corners 4, 5, and 6.
Checo found himself ahead of Max Verstappen, who would have ended up behind him by about 5 seconds if he had made the pit stop at that time. The Mexican driver, therefore, would have had to hope for a Safety Car towards the end of the race to play on equal terms. If, on the other hand, Bernd Mayländer had intervened before Max’s stop, the Dutchman would have enjoyed a huge advantage, not having to worry about overtaking on the track. Both, therefore, pushed on the track for different reasons.
On lap 46, the time had come, and car number 33 took the path to the pits to change tires, switching to the Medium compound for the Dutch driver. At the time of the stop, the current leader of the drivers’ world championship had about eighteen seconds of an advantage over his teammate, a factor that allowed him to return to the track less than two seconds behind Sergio Perez.
Above, we can see the race pace in its total calculation for the two Red Bull cars. As we can easily observe, we notice a very similar pace in the first part of the race up to lap 20. After the pit stop, from lap 20 to number 35, Checo lowered the average time, gaining race time. However, later on, Max Verstappen’s pace improved, managing to be very consistent in lap times. From lap 26 onwards, the Dutchman was on average faster than his teammate.
From a strategic point of view, Max Verstappen built his race in the first stint, managing to work the white-banded Pirelli tire very well for 45 laps. In the end, with a considerably fresher tire, his RB19 produced a really good average pace, with an average gap in his favor of about 4 tenths compared to that of his teammate.
Fernando Alonso made his pit stop on the 27th lap, placing himself behind the number 55 Ferrari. Despite also using a used Hard tire, he easily overtook a struggling Carlos Sainz in terms of race pace expressed by his Ferrari. Charles Leclerc found himself in a difficult race, complaining about a car that was too bouncy.
Miami GP 2023: Ferrari contains tire wear sacrificing lap time
It must be said that already on Saturday, an SF-23 car with a clearly more aggressive setup and more focused on qualifying was noticed. This aspect, consequently, was strongly felt during the race. It is likely that some changes were made in terms of ride heights, a setting that was not managed well and, as the results showed, negatively affected the performance level of the race.
On the Hard tire, we observe a different trend on the Maranello car: an SF-23 single-seater capable of minimizing tire wear but, at the same time, visually worsening lap times. Although Sergio Perez produced a very competitive pace, his pace worsened towards the end of the race, at which point he had to concede victory to Max Verstappen.
The lines related to the other cars are clearly spaced with an order that reflects the result on the track. The three cars in question have a similar wear that can be seen from the slope of the trend lines. Ferrari, to avoid excessive tire wear, is forced to lower its pace and even concede position to Mercedes. Essentially, the same problems seen in Bahrain.
Paradoxically, however, we note that the red car did worse on the Hard tire than on the Medium at the beginning of the race. The previous image clarifies this behavior very well. During the first few laps, Carlos was on the same pace as Alonso, setting some very good times before his pit stop.
Nevertheless, from lap 20 onwards, when Carlos Sainz switched to the white tire, he was never able to match the times of Fernando Alonso’s green car again. Towards the end of the race, the trend even worsened, with the Maranello car running with an average deficit of 3 tenths as compared to the AMR23, a reason for deep reflection to be addressed in the coming days.
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