Earthquake at Ferrari: Resignation after first race

After the first race of the season, the F1 Bahrain GP 2023and on the same day as the new one Ferrari Main Team, Frederic Vasseurheld a mass meeting with all employees of Ferrari Sportiva management in MaranelloThe specialist portal ‘Motorsport.com’ has revealed the resignation of an important Ferrari employee: the resignation of Ferrari’s head of design, David Sanchez.

According to the said portal, it was a personal decision of the French engineer and not a dismissal, which was taken to go to “a British team” supposedly McLaren. The engineer is about to enter gardening season (months during which by regulation an engineer has to wait before joining a new team so as not to use the information from the set he is leaving).

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Considered resignation and not for first race

coincidentally or not, This news comes after Ferrari started the 2023 F1 World Championship below any expectationsvery far from Red Bull’s speed in the race and without solving one of its main problems last year and which was directly related to the design of the car: its high wear in 2022 again damaged the car’s performance in the race in the first round of the course.

However, according to the aforementioned publication, the decision was not made based on the performance of the first race, but it was something that was considered for several months to join a British team after receiving a good offer.

The duties of Ferrari this 2023

Ferrari just started the year 2022 with the car to fight against a Red Bull with bigger problems. They seem to have everything in their face for the title. But the guys from Milton Keynes solved their initial problems with engine reliability and tire wear by building the car to a higher level and speed than Ferrari. So, Red Bull ended up crushing the second part of the season with better tire management and higher speeds on all types of tracks.

Besides, higher performance rear wing failed for Bahrain in pre-season tests and it failed again at the Grand Prix, with some good swings where Ferrari chose not to use it after being used in free practice.

Ferrari has clear homework for this year: improve engine reliability, the wear of the tires and their resistance to advancing in a straight line to have a greater point. But in Bahrain, their tire management was not as good as Red Bull and that prevented them from following Milton Keynes, who achieved double with more efficiency than last year.

Second great movement of the Vasseur era

This is the second great movement taking place in Frédéric Vasseur’s new era at the helm of the ‘Scuderia’. A few weeks ago, Iñaki Rueda’s role change was in the news. Ferrari had to improve its strategies this year and opted to put Ravid Jain in his place on the racing wall and bring Iñaki to work from the factory.

What will happen now?

Ferrari needs to continue developing its car during the year to improve its weaknesses and get closer to Red Bull, in addition to advancing its bitter battles with Aston Martin and Mercedes. For this, the head of design is an absolutely key pillar, with enormous responsibility in this improvement process.

His replacement, due to the ‘gardening’ period that another engineer from another group has to go through, must come from within the team itself as a promotion for another Ferrari engineer to take on that role.

Sánchez has been with Ferrari since October 2012. After four years at Maranelloreplaced dirk debeer and in 2019 he went to the aerodynamics department. In 2021, the boss then Mattia Binotto He promoted him to chief engineer, as head of the design of the car that allowed Ferrari to win again after several years of failure, the F1-75. He is also the chief designer of the current car, the SF-23. In the complicated situation that Ferrari finds itself in, this is another setback for the ‘Scuderia’ that we don’t know if it will cause big problems, but what is clear is that it doesn’t help either.