“Bahrain will not change our season,” said the new Scuderia Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur before the start of the 2023 Formula 1 championship. The cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix and the consequent month off in April inevitably leads to drawing an initial balance after three of the 23 races scheduled for this season and Ferrari’s results are clearly far below expectations.
The fact that the outcome of Sakhir’s season opener would not have changed the championship of the men in red was acceptable, but in Bahrain and two weeks later in Saudi Arabia the Ferrari SF-23 showed clear limitations that forced the technicians to ask themselves what should be the future of this project in terms of aerodynamic concept be given the weak points that are difficult to fix.
Fred Vassuer reiterated that in Australia the performance leap of the SF-23 was evident, but did not bring any points in the standings with Charles Leclerc retiring after a few hundred meters and Carlos Sainz first damaged by the red flag displayed after a pit stop already completed before Safety Car and finally penalized for the contact with Fernando Alonso in the last restart, five seconds which, due to the effect of the arrival behind the Safety Car, ousted him from the points zone.
Ferrari had never started so badly after three races in the era of the new scoring system. With six points under his belt Charles Leclerc sadly occupies tenth position in the Drivers’ standings alongside Nico Hulkenberg.
For Timo Glock, Ferrari are the disappointment of this start to the championship
“For me, Ferrari is the absolute disappointment of the first part of the season – the words of the former F1 driver, who raced for Jordan, Toyota, Virgin and Marussia reported by the Swiss magazine speedweek.com – there is nothing that goes in the right way. What happened to Charles Leclerc confirms this, failing to get a good starting position in Qualifying can lead to such moments on Sunday. Carlos Sainz had a good pace and handled the overtaking very well, the final penalty is also the result of a bit of bad luck, but it is a correct decision on the part of the race direction. It is certainly not the start of the season that Ferrari was hoping for and that we all were hoping for. It is now up to Vasseur to get the Scuderia back on track immediately.” – he explained.
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Red Bull ready to easily win in Baku
According to Timo Glock, the fact that the Mercedes was able to somewhat challenge Max Verstappen in Melbourne was a ‘chance’ linked to the characteristics of Albert Park: “The leading group was more compact in Australia, but in Baku with more corners and long straights in which they can take advantage with DRS open, I expect that Red Bull will once again be the car to beat in terms of gap” – Timo Glock concluded.
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