2023 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[wowgr8]

I hope you're right. Didn't Sainz himself say they're looking for the race pace so it's not as though we're imagining this issue if it is one. Would be inexplicable if the tyre problems carried on into this year.

[MV8]

Of course it's not good, they are testing and benchmarking low downforce setup on a mid-high downforce track. It's testing and it's not the best track for testing. It's not a bad idea to try and correlate wrong setup behaviour and race simulation with simulator work. If you have the poor setup correlated, then you can correlate good setup for sure. Leclerc's C4 lap shows same 1-lap pace as yestarday's Max' lap on C3, on a hotter track and insufficient downforce.

IMO Ferrari is focusing in the searching of problems for the future to anticipate them, not with the mind in Bahrain itself, we can have bad thoughts if this data remains in the FPs of Round 1

[Vanja #66]

IMO Ferrari is focusing in the searching of problems for the future to anticipate them, not with the mind in Bahrain itself, we can have bad thoughts if this data remains in the FPs of Round 1

It's a good thing to do, "you learn more by losing than winning"

[MV8]

IMO Ferrari is focusing in the searching of problems for the future to anticipate them, not with the mind in Bahrain itself, we can have bad thoughts if this data remains in the FPs of Round 1

It's a good thing to do, "you learn more by losing than winning"

I agree

[saviour stivala]

''not looking good'' ?. Not looking good indeed !. And this morning on used C4 number 16 pumped-in a 1-31, 024 over 4 tenths (0.418) faster than the Mercedes running on C5.

[LM10]

Not looking so good..

Do people seriously think that this is proper race simulation with proper setup? I mean, just look at the times. This way they would need 5 pit stops at least. It’s just setup work and testing different things. Because that’s what testing is for. Not every stint with more than 5 laps is a race sim.
I don’t understand why especially commentators and journalists write down every stint and try to draw conclusions regarding tyre wear/race pace from it.

[organic]

Leclerc and Sainz have come out a bit. The SF-23 is not yet at the level of the RB19. The philosophy has changed a bit. Faster car on the straight but it's cornering that still lacks a bit of performance. There is still work to be done to close the gap.

[Xyz22]

Yep. The car isn't good enough to win.

Also as i suspected from the onboards, the car is quite different from the original F1 75 which was really pointy on the nose and with a great overall balance.

Welcome to the new SF 90

[jumpingfish]

Do they have time to improve? 1 week left, but if they started producing parts in Maranello yesterday maybe they could bring them to Bahrain before FP3

[Xyz22]

Do they have time to improve? 1 week left, but if they started producing parts in Maranello maybe they could bring them to Bahrain before FP3

Outside 2012 Ferrari has never recovered performance compared to the rivals since 2006. 2018 is an outlier where they found a major issue in the floor during testing which was fixed in the second race.

[Vanja #66]

Leclerc and Sainz have come out a bit. The SF-23 is not yet at the level of the RB19. The philosophy has changed a bit. Faster car on the straight but it's cornering that still lacks a bit of performance. There is still work to be done to close the gap.

Wonder if Fred is instructing them to troll the media as much as possible

[arees83]

I think they are testing everything as previously stated and trying to get maximum correlation to the sims. This way the can build better setups in regards to tire wear etc. If the data matches the sims like the drivers have mentioned then the car when turned up and in qualifying trim will be faster.

I also think the engine isn't at maximum. If it's relaible based on bench testing why show up at testing with a "30hp gain" and destroy everyone so they can cry foul before the first race?

I reserve full judgement of competitiveness until the first race and qualifying are complete.

[wowgr8]

Leclerc and Sainz have come out a bit. The SF-23 is not yet at the level of the RB19. The philosophy has changed a bit. Faster car on the straight but it's cornering that still lacks a bit of performance. There is still work to be done to close the gap.

Might sound like I'm overreacting but I think that TD last year has torpedoed the entire project. The concept was all about downforce and it worked until the TD was introduced, now Ferrari are stuck with it since doing a 180 concept wise would be too costly under the budget cap. They're now stuck with this halfway house solution where they have the same concept but it has lost its primary strength. I just don't see any way it's possible that they can challenge the Red Bull that's incredibly strong in all areas with this compromised concept, it's like 2019, I just hope it isn't that bad because the 2019 car was very bad and was propped up by the engine. More than anything else I just don't want another season where Verstappen wins near enough every race.

Another similarity with 2019 is that in 2019 the thinner gauge tyres were introduced, that's part of the reason Ferrari regressed so hard that year, this time it's that TD.

[Xyz22]

I think they are testing everything as previously stated and trying to get maximum correlation to the sims. This way the can build better setups in regards to tire wear etc. If the data matches the sims like the drivers have mentioned then the car when turned up and in qualifying trim will be faster.

I also think the engine isn't at maximum. If it's relaible based on bench testing why show up at testing with a "30hp gain" and destroy everyone so they can cry foul before the first race?

I reserve full judgement of competitiveness until the first race and qualifying are complete.

No one is pushing to the max, that is obvious.
The issue is that Charles comments are very different from last year, when you could see he was mega happy because the car was fast and to his liking. Either he has learned to lie or is not looking very good.

[JPower]

Leclerc and Sainz have come out a bit. The SF-23 is not yet at the level of the RB19. The philosophy has changed a bit. Faster car on the straight but it's cornering that still lacks a bit of performance. There is still work to be done to close the gap.

Might sound like I'm overreacting but I think that TD last year has torpedoed the entire project. The concept was all about downforce and it worked until the TD was introduced, now Ferrari are stuck with it since doing a 180 concept wise would be too costly under the budget cap. They're now stuck with this halfway house solution where they have the same concept but it has lost its primary strength. I just don't see any way it's possible that they can challenge the Red Bull that's incredibly strong in all areas with this compromised concept, it's like 2019, I just hope it isn't that bad because the 2019 car was very bad and was propped up by the engine. More than anything else I just don't want another season where Verstappen wins near enough every race.

Another similarity with 2019 is that in 2019 the thinner gauge tyres were introduced, that's part of the reason Ferrari regressed so hard that year, this time it's that TD.

You’re massively overreacting.

If Ferrari wanted to, they could bolt on a max DF rear wing and put most of this talk to rest.

To me, most of the teams are testing specifically for Bahrain. Ferrari did the same in 2021 and 2022. Given their setup choices, I don’t believe the same for 2023 but we’ll see.