How a confident Ferrari launch has changed the perception of its 2023 F1 chances

By:

Matt Kew

Feb 15, 2023, 6:20 PM

OPINION: Ferrari's Formula 1 title ambitions crumbled to nothing in 2022 as reliability issues, strategy mistakes and on-track errors derailed its campaign. Launching its 2023 car this week with a public debut run at Fiorano says a lot about its confidence, and has perhaps changed the perception of its chances this season

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Ferrari threatened to almost come third in a two-horse race as the 2022 Formula 1 season drew to a close. Following the headline engine failures in Azerbaijan, Spain and Austria, the team wound down the turbos for the second half of the campaign to boost reliability.

They were even more asthmatic in Mexico. Carlos Sainz mustered only fifth ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc when they eventually reached the chequered flag a minute adrift of victor Max Verstappen. With Mercedes a genuine threat for the spoils before opting for a much too safe tyre strategy, just 40 points split the two squads scrapping in the wake of Red Bull ahead of the final two rounds.

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.