FDD wrote: ↑28 Mar 2023, 17:21
From Funo Analisi Tecnica, I hope that gays with knowledge here will comment/give their opinion.
"In Jeddah..."
From a high level view; everything seems plausible at least, and I agree that changing the suspension does not seem viable. The axle imbalance seems quite likely, given that the car seems to be very hard to set up across compounds, not particularly comfortable to drive, and has a big difference between race and qualifying trim.
My theory (which is not by any means correct) is that (based on driver and team comments) the lack of front downforce (or at least aero balance front to rear) means they have to work the front tires harder mechanically (i.e. susp.
setup rather than geometry) than anticipated to give peak grip. This more or less alleviates the difference in qualifying, but over a stint this will overwork the fronts as the lack of front DF will result in sliding as the tires lose grip, causing overheating and a compounding issue. And they cannot simply take rear wing off to balance it because that will just cause the same problem at the rear.
This makes me think that perhaps they over-estimated how different the 2023 Pirelli front compounds would be. The F1-75 did not seem to be an particularly understeer-y car; if anything it was quite tail-happy (this is why Sainz struggled a lot at the start). So with the assumption that the 2023 Pirellis would be
more prone to an oversteer balance, it would make sense to shift the balance more towards understeer/weaker front end for the SF23 compared to F1-75. When it emerges that the 2023 Pirellis are not really that different to 2022 (I know Verstappen has said it has not been that different, and nobody else has really said one way or the other), you end up with an evolution of the F1-75 with an inherently weak front end, which is what the SF23 appears to be.
All you can do in the meantime is try to run the car in as little compromised state as possible until you can get a better front end on this car or wait until 2024. On a high level, not dissimilar to the W13; the car was designed to be run a certain way and when that's not possible, then you have to compromise the whole thing. This would also explain why Ferrari is so sure this car has "untapped potential" despite its current performance.
Without wishing to get off topic, I don't think by any means that Ferrari missed the mark as badly as Merc did in 2022.
If the final spec of 2023 front Pirelli was only given to teams in Abu Dhabi last year, then the SF-23 may have been too developed to change this fundamental balance before the start of this year. Not unlike McLaren to some extent (although we know McLaren's issues are different and specifically floor-related). But I do not know the specific timelines from Pirelli or the team and this is nothing more than a theory.
"You can't argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"
- Mark Twain