Ferrari won’t bring any additional updates in 2023, as they concentrate on big changes over winter that will become central to F1 news coverage.
Although the 2023 season is in its final stages, many teams are pushing ahead with updates. Mercedes, Aston Martin and Haas are among those who will introduce new parts at the American GP. These alterations will have a short-term impact on what remains of this season, but they are also influential in development for 2024. The stable regulations mean that teams F1 will carry over any negatives or positives from this year into the next.
Amidst these late charges in the development race, Ferrari will not be joining this late flurry of updates. The Italian outfit has already dedicated significant resources to correcting its mistakes from last winter. Since the FIA introduced a technical directive last summer, the baseline concept for the F1-75 has become less effective. The delay at Maranello to recognise this weakness and adjust has proven costly in 2023.
As a result, much like Mercedes, the Italian team has been forced to sacrifice this year to establish the correct foundations for 2024.
Amidst this transitional period, there have still been positives for Ferrari. Race victory in Singapore for Carlos Sainz, alongside a series of more competitive race weekends, are promising signs for the team. With that said, catching Mercedes for 2nd in the Championship will be a difficult challenge.
Ferrari must make do without updates
Speaking ahead of the American GP, team principal Fred Vasseur emphasises the importance of optimising the existing F1-75 package:
“We are about to tackle a very demanding Grand Prix triple-header, which actually involves five races in three weekends, as there are two Sprints.
“All team members, including the drivers, will have to be on top of their game throughout in order to make the most of any opportunities that present themselves.
“We come to Austin off the back of a race where we paid a high price for a reliability problem on Carlos’ car, which meant there was only one SF-23 on the grid. Since then, we have been working hard to ensure that a similar situation does not reoccur.
“We must return to the level of execution demonstrated in Singapore and Japan – because that’s the only way to optimise our package so that Charles and Carlos can get the most out of it.”
Execution will be the name of the game for Ferrari, who are witnessing resurgences elsewhere in the field. McLaren is the most obvious example, which only adds to the traditional rivals Mercedes and Red Bull for Vasseur’s personnel to contend with.
Crucial months ahead
However, it is important to keep perspective when analysing the final five rounds. For Ferrari, it is not necessarily where they finish in the F1 standings that matters. At this stage, Red Bull has already secured the title in commanding rivals – and the chasing pack has fluctuated greatly.
The real area of importance is whether Mercedes and Aston Martin are successful in correlating their new updates. If these two teams take a step forward and collect encouraging data regarding their plans for 2024, this will inform how well-positioned they are heading into next season.
For Ferrari, the aim is unchanged – to bounce back from a difficult 12-month period and contend for victories. Although the Scuderia hasn’t made any huge jump in development mid-season, their updates have been consistently geared towards an improved understanding for 2024. Therefore, their strategy of establishing a baseline for next year and developing aggressively over winter remains unaltered.
Fred Vasseur often stresses that his team are focused on themselves – rather than looking at what others are doing. Whilst this is the correct approach, the next five rounds can still provide insight into which teams could challenge the Scuderia in 2024.
