Ferrari Battling Ghosts from the Past
During the winter, Scuderia Ferrari announced a few changes for the 2023 season. They appointed Fred Vasseur, who came from Alfa Romeo, as their new Team Principal. Mattia Binotto resigned during the off-season.
The Italian team also announced a new Chief Strategist, Ravin Jain, who was working as a race strategist at the headquarters; he is a graduate from Oxford. The current strategist, Inaki Rueda was sent back to Maranello with a factory position.
These significant changes are the result of a terrible season in 2022. Ferrari had perhaps the fastest car on the grid, but bad strategy during the races and reliability issues hindered the team’s momentum.
The ‘tifosi’ were hoping for big changes. It is not acceptable to see the team perform this way; throwing away a season like in 2022 is embarrassing. Ferrari made a lot of strategic mistakes that deeply affected Charles Leclerc's chances of a championship. The team was hemorrhaging points in every race.
Reliability also became a problem, Leclerc had to retire from three races, whilst Sainz did it in six. That is nine retirements in total and a hefty number of points for the Constructors’ Championship down the drain.
This deeply affected Binotto. Higher-ups on the team lost their trust in him. He resigned during the winter, after working for fifteen years at Ferrari. As mentioned earlier, Fred Vasseur was given his role. The team welcomed the off-season period to start materializing the concept of the new car. Winter was definitely short for them, with a lot of work to be done.
Winter was over, and teams were finalizing their brand-new cars. Ferrari had an amazing presentation at their HQ in Maranello, we got to see the car around the track! Finally, the much-awaited Bahrain tests were upon us. Everyone had their eyes on Ferrari; they wanted to see how they would compare to Red Bull, and Mercedes.
Let’s take a look at the main issues Ferrari battled during testing, and the first race of the 2023 season.
Degradation
Ferrari seemed to have decent pace during the tests in Bahrain, however, Leclerc and complained about severe degradation when running longer stints. During the race simulation, it was evident that the Ferrari could not sustain a consistent race pace due to the tires being worn out at a high rate.
When the first Grand Prix came, Ferrari looked strong during the practice sessions; on qualifying both cars made it easily to Q3. An issue with Leclerc’s energy store forced him to bail before Q3 ended, but he managed to place himself in 3rd, even though he did not make that last lap pushing for pole. Sainz performed similarly but was behind his teammate. Ferrari secured the second row of the grid.
It was expected to see both cars just behind Red Bull, considering how dominant they were last year. However, the gap was a mirage, in reality, Ferrari was not able to sustain Red Bull’s race pace. Leclerc was lapping more than half a second slower than Verstappen, despite starting the race with new soft tires. Degradation became a tremendous problem for Ferrari; when Leclerc abandoned the race, it was up to Sainz to clinch that last podium spot.
“We come to the race and we are a second a lap off the pace, which is huge.” -Charles Leclerc
Alonso was having a blast in his Aston Martin. He was faster than both Mercedes, and they were never a real threat to him. His real target was Sainz. When everyone made their last pit stop, we were able to see the true gaps between the cars.
Alonso had a real chance for a podium finish. Carlos Sainz radioed his team and stated that if he was to battle Alonso, he would not make it to the end of the race. He ended up conceding his position to Alonso, and had to manage the tires until the end. Thankfully for him, Mercedes was simply too slow on the straights, and Hamilton could not catch him up.
During the after-race interview. Sainz reassured his position; severe degradation was the reason Ferrari did not have a proper race pace. Red Bull simply looked too far away from the rest.
Vasseur had a similar sentiment, he mentioned that it is not possible that the car’s performance during qualifying was so different once race day came.
Usually, it’s a combination of aerodynamics and suspension, the ones that cause degradation. Ferrari might need to re-work some of the wing elements for the next races. They also shifted from an all pull-rod suspension to a hybrid. They run a combination of push-rod at the front and pull-rod at rear.
Reliability
Despite having both cars run more than 400 laps each during tests, Ferrari struggled with reliability once the season started. During qualifying, they had to retire Leclerc’s car earlier than expected because of an energy store issue. The component was not charging as it should.
Ferrari opted to change the component before the race. FIA only allows 2 changes per season, because it is a low degrading part, and it’s expected to perform for half of the season before needing a replacement. After more than 2 changes, teams will incur a grid penalty.
Having changed the component, Ferrari was hoping to perform well during the race. They were aware of the degradation issues, but the cars were enough for a 3rd and 4th place, considering Mercedes had struggled with speed on Friday and Saturday.
To everyone’s surprise, Leclerc had to abandon the race on lap 41, just 16 laps before the end.
The difficult thing about reliability issues is the fact that you don’t know when they will happen. Sometimes a thorough investigation by the engineers can help pinpoint the cause. The problem Leclerc had was unexpected to say the least. As mentioned earlier, Ferrari did more than 800 laps combined during tests, nothing suggested any kind of issue with the energy store or similar electrical components.
As bad as it looks?
Are the issues as bad as they look? Probably not, but Ferrari is still below pace, compared to Red Bull, especially during races.
Bahrain is a high abrasion circuit. Ferrari’s degradation problems were multiplied because of the track’s surface. Perhaps in Saudi Arabia we will see a more realistic gap between them and Red Bull, but they are still slower in both, qualifying and race pace.
Ferrari’s main problem seems to be degradation, and top speed compared to Red Bull. However, if we compare them to the rest of the teams, they are perhaps the fastest car. In terms of chassis, the Aston Martin is better balanced and does not suffer degradation to the extent Ferrari does. Mercedes on the other hand, has a troublesome package and they certainly need to work it during the season to match Ferrari’s pace.
What are your thoughts on Ferrari’s woes? Can they solve these problems before it’s too late? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy racing.
