Welcome Drivers!

This post is a continuation of the Constructor Deep Dive series we are currently working through. If you haven’t already, check out the deep dives that we have already done below.

• Williams Racing

• AlphaTauri

• Haas

• Aston Martin

• Alfa Romeo

• McLaren

• Alpine

• Mercedes

Next on the list is Ferrari, who finished runner-up in the Constructors championship in 2022.

2022 Performance

Ferrari was able to use the 2022 regulations to their advantage and put out a very competitive car last year. They finished 2nd for the first time since 2019, surviving a couple years where they were clearly off the pace from the leaders in 2020 and 2021.

At the beginning of the season everyone thought it was going to be Ferrari’s year. They had a 1-2 finish in Bahrain to kick off the year and quickly jumped out to a 49 point lead in the constructors standings. At that point the team ran into a wall of reliability issues, bizarre strategy calls and a dose of unfortunate luck. Carlos Sainz crashed in the 3rd and 4th races of the season and Charles Leclerc had 2 retirements in the span of 3 weeks due to engine failure.

Sainz was plagued by retirements and crashes all year and was unable to finish a total of 6 races. Leclerc was not able to win a race in the back half of the season. Ferrari strategy calls were questioned numerous times throughout the year as some believe it cost them wins. Their performance had stalled and they were no longer able to compete with the powerful Red Bull car.

Ferrari finished with 554 points on the year, 205 points behind the champions in Red Bull. Leclerc led the team with 308 points and was followed by Sainz who had 246 despite his DNF woes. This was the best year for either driver and Ferrari will be looking to take the next step to winning a championship in 2023.

Looking Ahead to 2023

Leadership, Management & Partnerships

Ferrari will move into the 2023 without Mattia Binotto, who departed his role as team principal at the end of last year’s season. His departure was primarily due to the team’s poor strategy and race performance. Leclerc was able to start on pole 9 times last season and only converted those into 3 wins.

In Binotto’s place Ferrari is bringing in Fred Vasseur, who serves as Alfa Romeo’s team principal last season. It will be Vasseur’s responsibility to correct the mistakes that troubled Ferrari last season and continue to develop an already competitive car.

Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna came out and said the SF23 will be “unprecedented in terms of speed.” We think this was just Vigna trying to hype up the car before the start of the season but it also shows they confidence he has in the car and team to come out and say that.

Ferrari’s management has all of the right pieces to win a championship this year. They will need to make sure their development is on the right track and that they can have the most efficient season in terms of mistakes possible. If they do that, we think they have an excellent shot at the title.

Development

Ferrari seemingly have kept on with the development path they starting in 2022. The SF-23 still has the “bathtub” style side pods but there are bits and pieces of the car that are different. Ferrari’s head of chassis Enrico Cardile called the SF-23 an evolution of the F1-75 but that it has been completely redesigned.

According to Ferrari, the largest difference between the SF-23 and the F1-75 from last year lie in the suspension. Ferrari has redesigned the front suspension to “support aerodynamics and increase the range of adjustments that can be made to the car at the track.” This redesign was centered around changing to a low track rod to support airflow to the inlets.

The front wing of the Ferrari has also been redesigned. They have shortened the front of the nose and added small winglets to the flaps. The interesting part about the winglets is Mercedes tried to do something similar last year and the FIA did not allow it. The FIA approved Ferrari’s winglets so they will be allowed to use them on the car.

The bodywork of the car is somewhat changed with lower corner of the side pods slimmed down. Most of the teams have gone this route and have gone about re-arranging their radiator to allow for this. Ferrari has added more ventilation slats inside the sunken area of the side pods for the cooling arrangement which deviates from most other teams who have gone with the Red Bull “cannon” rear-extracted air exit.

Ferrari’s goals for these updates was to increase the vertical downforce of the car while achieving their desired balance characteristics. The SF-23 has been labeled as a more elegant and aggressive version of last year’s car and Ferrari are hoping to close the gap to Red Bull this season and overtake them as champions of Formula 1.

Drivers

Similar to the other top teams, Ferrari is returning both of their drivers for the 2023 season. Charles Leclerc is the golden boy for Ferrari and the star of the team. Carlos Sainz is an incredibly talented driven who has improved every season he has been in F1. Both are talented enough to win in a good car.

Leclerc finished P2 last year but had some driver errors (notably at Imola and Paul Ricard) that cost him points. At times he gets overly aggressive and can be prone to making mistakes when that happens. He will need to keep his cool in the 2023 season because there is no doubt he will be involved in some pressure packed races again this season.

Sainz finished the year in P5 but we believe he performed better than his points indicated. He had 6 DNFs throughout the year. Most of those were engine failures or crashes where he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sainz has said his goal is to bring back “consistent Carlos” for the 2023 season and hopefully that we bring him up in the drivers standings.

If both drivers get off to a strong start to the season Ferrari may have the difficult decision of deciding which driver to prioritize winning with. From the outside looking it that choice will likely be Leclerc. He has been at Ferrari longer and is considered a worthy adversary to Max Verstappen. Sainz is no slouch though and if he can stay competitive with the top drivers he will make that a very difficult decision for Ferrari.

2023 Predictions

In out eyes it will be neck-and-neck between Ferrari and Red Bull. It will come down to who continued to develop their cars more efficiently. Ferrari has the upper hand on Red Bull as they had more wind tunnel time during the offseason. If Ferrari really fixed their reliability issues then we think they can compete with anyone including Red Bull.

Ferrari will also have to keep their eye on Mercedes coming from 3rd. They were almost caught by Mercedes towards the end of last season and if they aren’t careful they could get caught up fighting with Mercedes. Red Bull is the clear target and Ferrari will be focused on beating them early and often next season.

Upcoming Posts and Reader Feedback

Our next post will be a continuation of the deep dives into each team for their 2023 outlook. We will try to get out one a day considering we have limited time before the pre-season testing starts in late February.

If you like the post please subscribe to the newsletter. We try to publish 2-3 articles a week and will be doing in-depth breakdowns as the season gets going. Feel free to leave any comments or recommendations on topics you would like to be covered. Thanks for reading!