Ferrari only lost in Monza because of Ascari, Lesmos, and Parabolica repeated abuse to the rear tires with a small wing.Xyz22 wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 10:44The SF 23 has never been the favorite to win any race. Singapore was an outlier due to RB completely --- up the setup and the uniqueness of the track in which is quite hard to overtake.
In Monza, we were demolished by Red Bull and the same happened in Baku (similarish tracks to Vegas). While the car has slightly improved, in normal conditions, we won't be able to keep up with the RB19.
I agree that Ferrari should be able to be on the podium but beating the RB19 on pure pace seems a farfetched expectation (without even considering the potential strategy disasters and so on). As usual, i hope to be on the pessimistic side of thingsAR3-GP wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 17:27Ferrari only lost in Monza because of Ascari, Lesmos, and Parabolica repeated abuse to the rear tires with a small wing.Xyz22 wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 10:44The SF 23 has never been the favorite to win any race. Singapore was an outlier due to RB completely --- up the setup and the uniqueness of the track in which is quite hard to overtake.
In Monza, we were demolished by Red Bull and the same happened in Baku (similarish tracks to Vegas). While the car has slightly improved, in normal conditions, we won't be able to keep up with the RB19.
Las Vegas doesn't have as many real corners. The only real corners in vegas are T3 and T9 at best so I expect the result to be as good as Monza, at worst, and likely much better than that.
Monza also happened before the Suzuka floor upgrade. Leclerc has had some very convincing stints since then on tracks which don't even suit the car. There's no reason he won't be right there in Las Vegas.
At least the traction out of slow corners and very good straight line speed on the grid are there. Even a flawed car like the SF23 still has some track specific qualities.AR3-GP wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 17:27Ferrari only lost in Monza because of Ascari, Lesmos, and Parabolica repeated abuse to the rear tires with a small wing.Xyz22 wrote: ↑10 Nov 2023, 10:44The SF 23 has never been the favorite to win any race. Singapore was an outlier due to RB completely --- up the setup and the uniqueness of the track in which is quite hard to overtake.
In Monza, we were demolished by Red Bull and the same happened in Baku (similarish tracks to Vegas). While the car has slightly improved, in normal conditions, we won't be able to keep up with the RB19.
Las Vegas doesn't have as many real corners. The only real corners in vegas are T3 and T9 at best so I expect the result to be as good as Monza, at worst, and likely much better than that.
Monza also happened before the Suzuka floor upgrade. Leclerc has had some very convincing stints since then on tracks which don't even suit the car. There's no reason he won't be right there in Las Vegas.
Good improvement, even though context is also important. Ferrari has never been under real pressure this year as the performance of the car has been absolutely terriblem, therefore is hard to compare with years when they were fighting for the WDC/WCC.