No points. Ferrari returns home from Melbourne with a very bad overall result.
Technically Ferrari is once again the fourth force on the track behind Red Bull, Aston Martin and Mercedes. Unfortunately, the image is clear, but the Australian GP highlighted other problems within the Scuderia and these cracks should be as alarming as those linked to the lack of competitiveness of the SF-23 single-seater.
In the crazy race at the Albert Park circuit, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were also missing in the decisive moments, a sign that the atmosphere within the Racing Department is less relaxed than we are led to believe. The Maranello team can be happy there is now a three-week break in the Formula 1 calendar allows, because the stop will be useful for putting every piece of the puzzle back in its place, after a very different start to the 2023 Formula One season as compared to the ambitions of those who hoped to fight with Red Bull and Max Verstappen for the world championship.
The team showed up in Melbourne after analyzing a mountain of data and deliberating a car that was in fact at zero point of its season in terms of understanding. As if the pre-season testing session and the two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia didn’t take place. The technicians directed by Enrico Cardile seem to have found a development line, aware that the SF-23 today lacks competitiveness.
While waiting for the updates to arrive, which will be introduced between Baku, Imola and Barcelona (where the evolutionary package should be completed), in Australia the focus was on finding out what the actual potential of the current red car really is. And so the floor rejected in Jeddah was put in the car for the whole weekend and for the first time the SF-23 seemed less sensitive to variations in height, being able to afford a set-up more close to the asphalt, meeting the design choices that had fueled so many hopes for Ferrari before the start of the championship, which were then not confirmed on track.
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There is little to be happy about, mind you, because Charles Leclerc was in fact third at Sakhir when he was forced to retire due to the failure of the control unit, so Ferrari in Australia did not make a leap in quality, but did find a working basis and a certain consistency.
The race in Australia, therefore, offered us a Ferrari car that has begun to not suffer the usual degradation of the hard tyre which has been the nightmare of the first two GPs. The race took place at low pace after the first red flag: the goal was to get to the checkered flag with just one pit stop and a set of hards, so the race pace was adjusted to avoid the second theoretical stop. In this scenario, Carlos Sainz was able to keep up with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, considering Max Verstappen out of competition.
In this technical framework, in which important points could be brought home (Ferrari is fourth in the Constructors’ category with 26 points, less than half of those of Mercedes which is third!), the drivers were clearly not at theit best in this third round of the year.
Charles Leclerc is not serene: he is aware that 2023 is another year to throw away and, inevitably, he gets agitated
The Monegasque was never on the ball all weekend and botched the decisive moment in qualifying putting the blame on the wrong information from the Maranello pit wall: Charles was perfectly aware that the car needed two laps to put on the tires in temperature. They told him that to do the second run of Q3 he would have to settle for just one preparation lap, because they feared the arrival of a downpour of rain. The “little prince” listened to the team, while Carlos Sainz reasoned with him, taking the risk of indulging in the second launch lap.
The result was that Charles Leclerc, when he found his teammate’s car in front of him, thought that something had gone wrong in team management and made no secret of it, complaining in plain sight. Whoever said that Carlos had to give Charles a tow saw things that hadn’t been planned. It would have been better to try and put in a faster lap instead of chasing the ghosts that led him to commit an ingenuity on the first lap of the race.
Charles Leclerc, braking at turn 3 closed too early on Lance Stroll and ended up sent in the sand, ruining his Grand Prix in Melbourne. The race finished before it started, collecting another DNF in three GPs. The frustration of the moment threatens to show Charles a darker reality than it is, but Ferrari, anxious to find a decent set-up for the SF-23, is by now accustomed to giving up on preparing the qualifying lap, as if the drivers were just the terminal chip of the car and not human beings who need to find the confidence to attempt the perfect lap between the walls.
It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, if those two tenths that the Monegasque is capable of putting on treacherous tracks like Melbourne don’t arrive and also the balance of the race is negative due to his premature retirement.
Even Carlos Sainz took his time to ruin the Ferrari weekend. The Spaniard had a consistent race remaining close to Fernando Alonso. At the third restart he hit his compatriot, sending him outside the top ten: Carlos hoped to have opened the way to the first podium of the SF-23 and, instead, he was sentenced to take a 5-second penalty which dropped him to 12th place in that final lap.
The mistake was indisputable, while the penalty had an exaggerated effect, but Carlos only has to take responsibility because he aimed for a podium that Ferrari doesn’t deserve at the moment. The Spaniard, although aware of the mistake, tried to shift responsibility by taking a very tough media position (“… I feel robbed”), while it would have been better if he capitalized on a very important placement for the Scuderia.
Carlos Sainz wanted to go to the race direction to tell the stewards about how he feels things actually took place, but he was “rebounded” without getting anything. Ferrari must be very careful because the drivers represent a factor that has to be preserved. And if both of them ruined their race in Melbourne due to a mistake, it’s a sign that the atmosphere is too agitated and the pressure is very strong. The frustration of the team that Fred Vasseur spoke about after Melbourne must not undermine the morale of the drivers.
