He was waiting for him outside the hospital. When she saw him coming she addressed him as she did in moments of real anger, hissing the words: “It’s all His fault. You wanted to keep James Allison, you destroyed the team”. Maurizio Arrivabene had never wanted Sergio Marchionne to call him ‘you’. Perhaps on that afternoon in 2016, in the Montmelò paddock, this helped him keep his distance from a president who had almost immediately come into conflict with Allison, the technical director of Maranello. In Spain that day, with both Mercedes retiring for a suicidal collision on the first lap, Raikkonen and Vettel had taken the most bitter podium finishes. Neither of the two SF16-Hs had managed to pass the Red Bull on which, for the first time, sat a little boy who had already stolen the starting position from Kvyat (and would later steal something else from him). To calm the Marchionne’s icy fury not even the evidence of the facts was enough, that of a race spoiled from the outset by the performance in qualifying and during construction by the impossibility of overtaking. So much so that Ricciardo, with the other Red Bull, had stayed behind the two Reds.
Detachment at the finish line, we are average
I wonder what the good soul would have said today, in front of the unedifying show of a SF-23 classified fifth and with the other eleventh (a position earned thanks to Tsunoda’s penalty). Perhaps the most eagerly awaited race, that of the promised technical evolutions, hasn’t moved the rankings that much, not even the performance one. Carlos Sainz was over 45 seconds behind the winner at the finish line, which is a margin roughly in line with the season average so far. But he also caught twenty-one and thirteen from the two Mercedes, respectively, of Hamilton and Russell. Who at the right moment also passed him on the track. And a dozen from Perez, in the middle of a regressive weekend.
For this reason the reconstruction made hot by Fred Vasseur, this time, it seemed worthy of Spider-Man who climbs the windows of skyscrapers. I don’t understand, sincerely what it means to support that “the pace was there in the last stint”. In the last stint, i.e. with the last set of tyres, two things are usually done: either you look for the fastest lap, or you think about putting the result in the bank. As in Monaco, Toto Wolff’s black arrows were uncatchable. And Leclerc’s race, from whom it was impossible to ask for miracles since he started from the back, ended up in a useless duel with Alpine. This is also a film already seen.
A timid optimism
Ferrari (by Sainz) started in the front row. An excellent result, but not an absolute novelty in this 2023. It is known that the problem of the Reds is not the fast lap on Saturday, but the crustacean pace in the race. The starting point with the red tires was very nice, which led Carlos to threaten Verstappen’s position in the lead, but still an academic attempt, given the difference in pace. The tyres, in the sense of compounds, Ferrari used them all. And with none we have seen a real leap in performance. On the other hand, there were many problems, such as graining on the front right tread (the least used in Montmelò, therefore the ‘colder’). In the race, the Red gets lost, gets tired, wears out.
Difficult to draw anything positive from this test. Yet there are conditions for a timid optimism. For what it’s worth, as I’ve already said, I’m convinced that the new bodywork isn’t so much about recovering lap time as it is about stabilizing behaviour, giving the drivers more confidence. The same race strategy was based on prudence (by the way: I really believe that the ‘switch position’ communicated via radio by Ricky Adami to his driver did not refer to an improbable exchange of positions, but rather to the position of a switch, which should not be changed ), assuming that the Mercedes would sooner or later pass in front. Then, the fact that the gap from Max from Mars is in line with the rest of the season shouldn’t be seen entirely negatively, given that the Spanish one was potentially the most difficult track for Ferrari, at least until Silverstone and Suzuka.
Leclerc, the mystery worries
Instead, worry the problem accused by Leclerc. It could (I stress: these are only hypotheses) be a question of an element, in the gearbox or in the suspension, which has been damaged with a micro-crack. This would explain, at least, why it was not possible to trace the cause with the tools supplied in the box. But even these are problems to be sorted out, because already in race-2 Charles paid the price for concerns related to reliability. What absolutely mustn’t crack, assuming he isn’t already, is the rider’s trust in the team. That afternoon seven years ago, together with Marchionne’s private plane, his ‘autonomous’ project took off definitively. The consequences were not seen immediately, indeed they were not, but I fear they had a long tail. And today Adrian Newey puts his never-consummated relationship with Ferrari on the streets, but in the meantime his marshals go to McLaren.
#Ferrari #problems #microcrack #Leclercs #SF23 #FormulaPassion