2023 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

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Well the timing of the Sanchez announcement didn't help - that gave the appearance that not all of it is hot air. In my opinion it seems like formu1a (Pg and Duchessa) may have been fed a false narrative by a faction within Ferrari who would gain from discontent within the team (who?). But time will likely tell what is truth and what isn't

[FDD]

Well the timing of the Sanchez announcement didn't help - that gave the appearance that not all of it is hot air. In my opinion it seems like formu1a (Pg and Duchessa) may have been fed a false narrative by a faction within Ferrari who would gain from discontent within the team (who?). But time will likely tell what is truth and what isn't

Does not look good to me, but I agree that we do not have, or better, we are not sure that info published by the media is 100% correct.
As you said, time will tell...

[AR3-GP]

If there are competing "factions" within Ferrari, then somebody is going to end up on the outside eventually.

[dialtone]

Changing topics back to racing:

Last year the race was lost because on hard tires, after the SC and VSC, LEC was simply unable to get the tires back to temperature as fast as RBR, even in quali Ferrari needed 2 warmup laps in both Jeddah and Australia. Aero efficiency is obviously critical.

This is last year's quali, PER v LEC:


There are 2 slow corners where it's easy to see that mechanical grip matters most, every other corner is like T5-6-7 in Bahrain, fast corners where downforce matters.

On paper Ferrari should be great here, but that really depends on the gap in the slow corners, last year PER lost almost 0.25s just in the last corner, and 0.35s up till the back straight where LEC then lost 0.5s. T1 IMHO will be the real difference maker this year, in Bahrain Ferrari was losing 0.1s in quali and 0.2s+ in the race just in T1, traction out of T1 is less important here because the follow-on straight is short but still, at the end of the lap with no tires on T27 the car will be slow for sure so they really need to manage T1 well.

Also IMHO, the new rear wing only would make sense if it provides efficiency, losing top speed or better load to the rear isn't desirable judging by T5-6-7 in Bahrain.

All of this my opinion, probably wrong in more ways than one.

[avantman]

Last year the race was lost because on hard tires, after the SC and VSC, LEC was simply unable to get the tires back to temperature as fast as RBR, even in quali Ferrari needed 2 warmup laps in both Jeddah and Australia. Aero efficiency is obviously critical.

First of all thanks for you analyzes dialtone, great stuff!
In terms of tire warm-up last year in Jeddah, I'd argue it was more about particular driver's comfort, feel and setup nuances.
Charles tried both 1 and 2 warm-up laps throughout quali last year, he set his fastest lap on the 2nd run in Q3 after 2 warm-up laps indeed, he was slower by 0,2s on his 1st run doing just 1 warm-up lap. But Sainz on the contrary whilst being on the same strategy in Q3 failed to improve on his 2nd run(after 2 warm-up lap), he ran 0,45s slower, struggled for grip and couldn't explain why later talking to the media. Sainz was even a bit quicker than Charles on the 1st run in Q3.
It wasn't the same for the Red bull drivers either. Perez needed just 1 warm-up lap throughout quali. But Max struggled with warm-up clearly, he needed 2 warm-up laps on the opposite all day, including both runs in Q3.

Watching Charles and Max onboards after the final restart, I noticed Max pushed simply harder, he risked more, came closer to the walls everywhere to stay in the DRS range. I'm not sure Ferrari really struggled with the warm-up more than Red bull. The top speed advantage with the DRS open was the biggest factor, otherwise Charles could've re-passed him again, as we saw he wasn't slower at all until the chequered flag.

[organic]

Charles would've also likely won without the yellow flag

[AR3-GP]

Changing topics back to racing:

Last year the race was lost because on hard tires, after the SC and VSC, LEC was simply unable to get the tires back to temperature as fast as RBR, even in quali Ferrari needed 2 warmup laps in both Jeddah and Australia. Aero efficiency is obviously critical.

This is last year's quali, PER v LEC:
https://i.imgur.com/X1yK2ce.jpeg

There are 2 slow corners where it's easy to see that mechanical grip matters most, every other corner is like T5-6-7 in Bahrain, fast corners where downforce matters.

On paper Ferrari should be great here, but that really depends on the gap in the slow corners, last year PER lost almost 0.25s just in the last corner, and 0.35s up till the back straight where LEC then lost 0.5s. T1 IMHO will be the real difference maker this year, in Bahrain Ferrari was losing 0.1s in quali and 0.2s+ in the race just in T1, traction out of T1 is less important here because the follow-on straight is short but still, at the end of the lap with no tires on T27 the car will be slow for sure so they really need to manage T1 well.

Also IMHO, the new rear wing only would make sense if it provides efficiency, losing top speed or better load to the rear isn't desirable judging by T5-6-7 in Bahrain.

All of this my opinion, probably wrong in more ways than one.

I wouldn't use T5-T6-T7 as a good example. That is where Red Bull was really destroying everyone in Bahrain. The RB drivers were using hardly any curb there on their qualifying laps. Sainz was constantly all over the exit curb on T7 nearly losing control.

[avantman]

I don't think Red bulls were any faster than Charles Ferrari in quali through T5-6-7.Of course they weren't using kerbs, why would they want to go slower? Kerbs would destabilize their platform. Or do you assume they were simply sandbagging in Q3?
add: yeah, I just checked the telemetry from Q3 in Bahrain(provided by dialtone), Charles gained lap time on Max through T5-6-7. Not much, but he was faster on his 1st and only run, compared to Max 1st run.


(c)dialtone

[Juzh]

I don't think they sandbagged in Q3, but we did hear RB heavily compromised qualifying for better race performance. Other teams did say something similar, but obviously RB went very extreme on this front.

[Andi76]

Tweets from "tami." translating parts of Vasseur's interview with AUTOhebdo.

#AUTOhebdo has contacted Vasseur about reports from Italian media claiming he has little power in the team & Vigna making the decisions.

Vasseur (surprised): "I have the means & the power of decision that I have never had elsewhere. This is the reality of the situation!"

Vasseur about David Sanchez leaving:

Vasseur: "It's inevitable. There are people who were very close to Mattia and who prefer to leave; which doesn't bother me. And there are others who may have feared for a moment for their future."

Vasseur: "I find it difficult to understand why the team becomes a target after only one race. As far as the correlation between the simulation and the track is concerned, we are in line."

Vasseur: "That's why I asked everyone to stay focused on performance and find solutions to reliability issues, because the championship is long. Just because you don't win the first one doesn't mean you're offside. Bahrain was bad in some ways, and good in others!"

Vasseur on the reports about Charles requesting a meeting with John Elkann to discuss the situation.

Vasseur: "We spoke with the drivers, Elkann and Vigna after winter testing, and we will all speak again together after Imola. These meetings are planned.."

I hope this will calm down some of the people here.

As a side note, Diego Tonde seems to be taking over the role of Head of Vehicle Concept. What's more, Mekies and Gualtieri are not leaving, btw.

What I like about Vasseur is that he seems to be quite open about such topics. He's level-headed until now.

How do you know that Gualtieri and Mekies won't leave? The real problem with such stories at Ferrari is that such interviews are only there to appease fans and media and that usually when such things happen at Ferrari, something is very wrong. In Ferrari's case it has always been not only that where there is smoke there is fire, but that where there is smoke there is real fire. I personally know that some engineers were very unhappy about what was done with Binotto and, to put it mildly, were "finally fed up this time, because it never works, it's always the same". How much I would wish that at Ferrari everything is fine and you get the title and there are no negative effects. Only unfortunately I know Ferrari to this much too well that I know that if four important persons leave the team in short time and above all two whose life the team was - then Mr. Vasseur, which has naturally an agenda if it gives such an interview much tell - but then lies with Ferrari some in the argen and then it is internally so badly as for a long time no more. If contract details are then divulged, especially with Ferrari's extremely strict contract addendums regarding secrecy - then that speaks volumes. This has nothing to do with pessimism, but is unfortunately pure realism. What else can Vasseur say? What happened, however, says it all if you know Ferrari.

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Vasseur: “Leclerc will be penalized in Jeddah. Mekies will stay with us, he is a pillar of the team.”

https://www.formu1a.uno/vasseur-leclerc ... a-squadra/



Rip

[F1NAC]

Will see if they improved defects in strategy dept. Good test

[LM10]

How do you know that Gualtieri and Mekies won't leave?

Regarding Mekies at least, AMuS reported it and as we know they're pretty well informed most of the time.

#AMuS also reports that the Laurent Mekies news (that he considers leaving) is old news. After Binotto left, Mekies looked at potential other places but that happened in December.

Back then Vasseur talked to him and convinced him to stay (made him his right hand).

#AMuS
@andihaupt1 reports that there was a leak about Enrico Cardile's contract. The leak said that his contract was running out.

Those leaks are deliberately spread, so that people think that there is a hire/fire culture at Ferrari now.
But that is not the case!

Tweets from "tami.".

[AR3-GP]

How do you know that Gualtieri and Mekies won't leave?

Regarding Mekies at least, AMuS reported it and as we know they're pretty well informed most of the time.

#AMuS also reports that the Laurent Mekies news (that he considers leaving) is old news. After Binotto left, Mekies looked at potential other places but that happened in December.

Back then Vasseur talked to him and convinced him to stay (made him his right hand).

#AMuS
@andihaupt1 reports that there was a leak about Enrico Cardile's contract. The leak said that his contract was running out.

Those leaks are deliberately spread, so that people think that there is a hire/fire culture at Ferrari now.
But that is not the case!

Tweets from "tami.".

I wondered a few things in this time

1) Could "leaks" be spread by other teams in attempt to "destabilize"?
2) Could Vasseur have been behind some of the misinformation, in hopes to identify the moles within Ferrari? Those who shared the misinformation could have been fooled and have now outed themselves to Fred (if this scenario took place).

[dialtone]

Changing topics back to racing:

Last year the race was lost because on hard tires, after the SC and VSC, LEC was simply unable to get the tires back to temperature as fast as RBR, even in quali Ferrari needed 2 warmup laps in both Jeddah and Australia. Aero efficiency is obviously critical.

This is last year's quali, PER v LEC:
https://i.imgur.com/X1yK2ce.jpeg

There are 2 slow corners where it's easy to see that mechanical grip matters most, every other corner is like T5-6-7 in Bahrain, fast corners where downforce matters.

On paper Ferrari should be great here, but that really depends on the gap in the slow corners, last year PER lost almost 0.25s just in the last corner, and 0.35s up till the back straight where LEC then lost 0.5s. T1 IMHO will be the real difference maker this year, in Bahrain Ferrari was losing 0.1s in quali and 0.2s+ in the race just in T1, traction out of T1 is less important here because the follow-on straight is short but still, at the end of the lap with no tires on T27 the car will be slow for sure so they really need to manage T1 well.

Also IMHO, the new rear wing only would make sense if it provides efficiency, losing top speed or better load to the rear isn't desirable judging by T5-6-7 in Bahrain.

All of this my opinion, probably wrong in more ways than one.

I wouldn't use T5-T6-T7 as a good example. That is where Red Bull was really destroying everyone in Bahrain. The RB drivers were using hardly any curb there on their qualifying laps. Sainz was constantly all over the exit curb on T7 nearly losing control.

Nah, RBR was gaining at T1, T8, T10 and T15, not 5,6,7. Even with Charles lap 11 being 0.8s slower than VER he was equally fast in 5,6,7. SF-23 has good aero, bad balance especially at slow speed.