How Ferrari’s 2023 season should be read: reading the world rankings in a negative way because last year the SF-75 had guaranteed second place in the Constructors’ world championship, while the SF-23 slipped behind Mercedes, finishing in third place final which is worth less money, but more hours of work in the tunnel than one hundred, but making a less simplistic analysis, we can say that the Scuderia has given a boost from the Italian GP onwards, revealing that hidden potential that the he had red, but he couldn’t express himself, especially in the race.
At the moment in which Charles Leclerc ran his best race (with the front row next to Max Verstappen and second place earned thanks to a non-winning but competitive pace) there was the relegation of the Cavallino to third place among the teams, essentially because Carlos Sainz was not in the match in Abu Dhabi, as if, after the crash in free practice, he was driving another car, not even related to that of the Monegasque.
Ferrari suffered great inconsistency in performance and the “relegation” in favor of Mercedes should not be attributed to the Spanish driver due to what happened at Yas Marina, but to the repeated mistakes made during the season.
Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
Robert Shwartzman, Ferrari SF-23, testing in Abu Dhabi
The Scuderia changed its approach during the championship: it had focused on the development of the red car in search of maximum aerodynamic load. More downforce not only meant more vertical thrust, but also more porpoising, the endemic evil that F1 has to combat with these ground-effect cars. When Diego Tondi’s aerodynamicists came to terms with it, and gave up a bit of load in the extreme design of the surface, they allowed themselves the luxury of lowering the SF-23 with a setup that was closer to the asphalt which was significantly better in lap time.
Not only that, but with the arrival in Maranello of David George, the American expert who knows the secrets of the Honda power unit and Red Bull, the approach of the engine engineers led by Enrico Gualtieri has also changed. Not so much in the management of the 6-cylinder turbo endothermic, but of the hybrid. The division of electric power was revised: the energy intended to enhance the traction qualities when exiting corners was also too much and skidding during acceleration, in addition to hopping due to bouncing, was the cause of premature overheating of the tyres.
Photo by: Ferrari
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
By reducing the torque available from the MGU-K, it was possible to reduce clipping at the end of the straights: essentially there was still some energy left to spend on the straight, being able to rival the Red Bull also in terms of top speed. The development token granted for the electronic management of the hybrid by Monza made it possible to extract the true potential from the SF-23, net of the design errors that will have to be corrected on the 2024 single-seater.
Adrian Newey has already said that he expects his opponents to be able to match the performance of the Red Bull RB19 next year, but the English genius is also certain that he has kept an important margin for growth in his pocket for the RB20. For Ferrari and its other opponents (Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin) a re-engagement will not be easy, but 2024 offers a great opportunity to at least try: the technical regulations do not change, just as the tires will be the same as those that concluded this championship . There will be no need to build a virtual model of the new tyre, resetting the parameters used this year, but there will be a great opportunity to understand how the tires should be used next season.
Photo by: Erik Junius
Pirelli tyres
The Pirelli tests in Abu Dhabi went a bit under the radar due to the lack of anything new, while in reality they were strategic for the teams that have the ambition of getting back on top. It should not be surprising, therefore, that Ferrari was the team that covered the most kilometers in a single day of work. The Cavallino technicians can analyze the data of 258 laps completed (the equivalent distance of 4.4 GPs) with Robert Shwartzman author of 123 laps, Carlos Sainz 69 and Charles Leclerc 66. The young test driver, together with the starting drivers, was able carry out various set up experiments which gave interesting indications on understanding the tyres. Not having to look for times, the work was based on finding the best correlation between the track and the simulation programs, so much so that the young Russian with an Israeli passport was in Maranello yesterday to immediately check the reactions of the solutions found at Yas Marina on the simulator.
In the meantime, the 676, the single-seater entrusted to Enrico Cardile, began to take shape in the Sports Management: it was to be the Ferrari of redemption with a significant reduction in the frontal section for the benefit of greater aerodynamic efficiency.
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Ferrari SF-23 technical detail of the fund which made its debut in Japan
In particular, the chassis has been redesigned to allow the adoption of bellies with a more extreme undercut (it is necessary to bring the lateral anti-intrusion cone further down which on the SF-23 was positioned in a point that created a strong aerodynamic block) and to favor the adoption of a more extreme front suspension, thanks to the greater misalignment of the upper triangle, to favor the anti-dive effect (sinking of the nose during braking), with the rear arm decidedly lower, while maintaining the push scheme front pull rod and rear pull rod.
The others are not sleeping, but in Maranello they have defined the keys to what will be the first year in which Fred Vasseur will have had a free hand to shape his team and the car that will have to relaunch the Cavallino’s ambitions. Otherwise it will be painful…
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