How Ferrari responded to a 2023 reality check amid its promising F1 revamp

When Ferrari bravely launched its SF-23 challenger with a live installation run at Fiorano, the team declared its optimism over being able to fight for both world championships this year. That further fuelled the expectations of the ever-demanding tifosi. Much like the Real Madrids and FC Barcelonas of this world, failure is not an option for the Italian giant.

But Ferrari’s passionate fans were in for a rude awakening at the opening round in Bahrain when that optimism proved misplaced. Rather than fighting for titles, Ferrari ended up narrowly losing out to Mercedes for second place after a rollercoaster 2023 season for both squads.

Like everyone else, Ferrari turned up with a car that was no match for the all-conquering Red Bull RB19. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz qualified on the second row for the Bahrain opener, a respectable three to four tenths behind Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. But while Ferrari’s one-lap pace seemed promising enough, it was the race performance that set off the alarm bells. Sainz finished fourth, 48 seconds behind winner Verstappen, after being passed and left for dead by Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin as the hot and twisty Sakhir circuit exposed Ferrari’s weakness.

The drivers found themselves churning through the tyres in a bid to keep up with the Red Bulls. To make matters worse, Leclerc retired from the race with power unit issues that prompted an engine penalty as early as the second race. The 22-round season was barely under way, yet the prancing horses had already stumbled over the first hurdle with a bruising Bahrain foreshadowing more blows to come.

“For sure I think the level of expectation was a bit too high at the beginning of the season,” says team boss Fred Vasseur. “We understood quickly the situation after a couple of laps in Bahrain, and even a couple of laps into the simulator before going to Bahrain.”

Ferrari’s fortunes improved on less demanding circuits. Leclerc took pole and claimed Ferrari’s first podium in Baku, albeit 21s behind Perez. But it received more hidings in Miami and Spain, while further questions over its race strategy were raised in Monaco, where neither driver finished within a minute of Verstappen. Seven races into the season, Ferrari sat fourth in the table on 100 points, well behind both Mercedes and 2023’s early surprise package Aston Martin.

Going for a full B-spec was not an option under F1’s cost-cap rules, but an aggressive upgrade path was identified to not only make the SF-23 quicker, but also kinder on its tyres. Better handling was targeted too, with both drivers frustrated by its unpredictable behaviour and wildly fluctuating form race to race and – alarmingly – even stint to stint. From June’s Spanish Grand Prix onwards, Ferrari leaned further into the prevailing downwash sidepod solution that moved it closer to Red Bull’s winning philosophy, but that tyre-churning race further exposed its weaknesses.

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Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Ferrari's upgrades overhaul arrived at the Spanish GP but it didn't deliver a transformation in fortunes

“We keep talking a lot about tyres and degradation, but I think there’s also a bit more of a fundamental problem with the race pace,” Sainz opined after finishing 46s behind Verstappen in his home race at Barcelona. “We just lack race pace and we need to make a car that is kinder on tyres but also more consistent with the aero.”

The low-degradation Montreal circuit allowed Ferrari to show its true pace better, and Leclerc finished second in a morale-boosting Austrian GP, just five seconds adrift of winner Verstappen, but more struggles at Silverstone and the Hungaroring dampened any hopes of a lasting breakthrough.

The team took further courage from its home race in Italy, for which it had developed a Monza special low-downforce package. That patriotic approach yielded an emotional pole for Sainz, and both drivers battled tooth and nail for third, regaling the tifosi with a spirited display that shows that sentiment still has a place in the calculated world of modern F1. But what had become obvious by the summer was that, while some progress had been made, Ferrari soon ran into the limitations of how much it could address the baked-in peakiness of the SF-23 without changing the chassis, meaning a lot of items on its drivers’ performance wishlist had to be deferred to 2024.

“We gave up more points than our competitors and that is another topic that we need to work on for next year, to be more opportunistic and more efficient” Fred Vasseur

As Aston Martin’s challenge faded, Ferrari became embroiled in a straight fight for second with Mercedes, a squad that faced similar form fluctuations with this generation’s capricious ground-effect cars. The fight went down to the wire in Abu Dhabi, with Mercedes just holding out by three points.

But while new team boss Vasseur’s first year in charge was compromised by shadows of the past, his Maranello restructure has also shown its first promising signs. Amid Red Bull’s unprecedented dominance, Ferrari was the only team to keep the Milton Keynes-based team from a clean sweep of 2023 race wins, with Sainz’s speed and cunning allowing him to take the only non-Red Bull victory in a thrilling Singapore showdown. It was the sort of high-pressure race that could have featured a previous iteration of Ferrari crumbling under the pressure, but neither driver nor team put a foot wrong, and capitalised on the rare opportunity to benefit from an off-kilter weekend from Red Bull.

Ferrari’s drivers experienced their team’s many ups and downs of 2023 through different ways. A final score of Leclerc on 206 points and Sainz on 200 – which placed them fifth and seventh respectively, split by McLaren’s Lando Norris – suggests they were evenly matched, but the way they amassed those points tallies could not be more different. Leclerc suffered what he called a “disaster” of a start by scoring just six points in the first three races, and went through more misfortune despite appearing slightly more comfortable with the SF-23.

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Sainz's Singapore stunner did give Ferrari a victory to savour in 2023

After the summer break it was Sainz who became the dominant driver, capped by his Monza pole and subsequent Singapore pole-to-flag triumph. But another floor upgrade in Japan allowed Leclerc to lean on the car harder again and hit a late purple patch of form. His increased confidence led to three poles and four podiums across the last five races, despite not making the start in Brazil due to an electronics issue that caused him to crash out on the formation lap.

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Ferrari’s season was clearly not without mistakes, bookended by Leclerc’s DNF in Bahrain and DNS in Brazil, but also including his disqualification for floor-plank wear in the United States GP and penalties for impeding in qualifying. Vasseur admits to keeping a list in his head of all the missed opportunities, but refuses to divulge them in public because he doesn’t want his troops to look for excuses.

“We gave up more points than our competitors and that is another topic that we need to work on for next year, to be more opportunistic and more efficient,” he explains. “But I hate to race with ‘if’, because everybody can race with ‘if’ and do a better job. It means that this [word] is completely forbidden at the factory. It is not to find an excuse at all because it is our fault. It is where we have to improve. It is clearly a huge potential in terms of points.”

Vasseur’s humane but no-nonsense approach appears to inspire confidence in Maranello, where the drastically different 2024 car project is led by chassis technical director Enrico Cardile and engine chief Enrico Gualtieri. But while the tifosi may not like to hear about muted ambitions, Ferrari won’t fall into the same trap of setting sky-high expectations.

“What I would keep in mind this season is the reaction of the team,” adds Vasseur. “We had tough moments but we collectively made a huge step forward and this is good for the future.

“I don’t know if it will be better next year, nobody knows. You can make up one second and if the others are doing 1.5s, then you look stupid. But if they do five tenths then you look like a hero. At the end of the day it is a comparison. I don’t want to be too optimistic because it was probably one of the issues we had last season. We just have to be focused on what we are doing and not to think about the prize-giving ceremony before Bahrain.”

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Vasseur's first year as Ferrari boss was positive but far from perfect

Vasseur’s work has only just begun

Inertia is an inescapable phenomenon in Formula 1. Teams can often fix technical issues overnight, but a change of personnel or culture takes much longer to reap the rewards from. Ferrari’s 2023 season is a good example of that lag.

It came off the back of a challenging 2022, where it had an initially competitive car, but led to team principal Mattia Binotto resigning. Binotto’s replacement, Fred Vasseur, faced the task of cutting through the byzantine squad to improve its organisation from top to bottom, but it’s a mission that will take time.

Questions about its execution and reliability linger, but under Vasseur’s leadership Ferrari appeared a more harmonious organisation that tried to make the most of the hand it was dealt. It has also attempted to be more open towards the media and the outside world at large.

"The issue in F1 is inertia. The reality of our business is that when you want to steer the boat a little bit, then we are not agile anymore. If we want to recruit, we are speaking not in days, we are speaking in years" Fred Vasseur

“The most important thing is that the one thousand people we have are convinced that they are all contributing and they are all trying to push the limit,” is how Vasseur sums up his people management approach at Maranello.

Another example is his capture of Mercedes’ performance director Loic Serra to replace the McLaren-bound David Sanchez as part of a larger recruitment drive. Serra will be a key asset but, due to his Mercedes terms, he won’t join before 2025.

“The issue in F1 is inertia,” Vasseur explains. “The reality of our business is that when you want to steer the boat a little bit, then we are not agile anymore. If we want to recruit, we are speaking not in days, we are speaking in years. But if you don’t do it, it will be even worse in six months.”

It appears that Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who knows Vasseur well from Sauber and his junior career, are on board too, with Leclerc heading towards a long-term contract renewal. But as 2024 will feature the first Ferrari F1 car designed under his regime, Vasseur’s work is only just beginning.

Photo by: Ferrari

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