F1 | Ferrari: with the stiffer bottom, the SF-23 turns lower

Ferrari looks to qualifying with a certain confidence: don’t let the times of the third free practice session influence you, because the best redhead, that of Carlos Sainz, is only seventh. The Prancing Horse team gave up trying the flying lap when the track got rubber, but the SF-23 had previously shown that it didn’t look bad in the qualifying simulation.

The feeling is that the Scuderia’s technicians have unlocked some of the potential that the red has in its body, but which was not seen either in Bahrain or in Saudi Arabia. The riders found a way in the development by allowing themselves a decidedly lower set-up (the red has now returned to release the sparks produced by the metal pads under the table) which allowed Sainz and Leclerc to work with the mediums in a good race simulation , containing the appearance of graining resulting from low Australian temperatures.

The Scuderia promoted the bottom with the small curl in the trailing edge of the pavement in front of the rear wheel that had been rejected in Jeddah: the engineers headed by Enrico Cardile worked to stiffen the bottom. In the image of George Piola the two tie rods can be observed: in addition to the external one, easily visible, at the end, the smaller one can be seen halfway through the machine. Two tools that have allowed the red to travel lower with less sensitivity to changes in height.

Ferrari SF-23: There is a cap on the front brake vent

Photo by: George Piola

Also very interesting is the carbon “cap” which was made to choke the grip of the front brakes: those destined to bring the air for cooling the caliper and disc have not been closed, but rather the channel which introduces the air into the ” lung” that forms between the internal and external baskets. To help the front tires get up to temperature, you don’t try to keep the air cool to avoid overheating: with the low temperatures in Melbourne, the Prancing Horse men worked in the opposite direction…