“Where are the Ferrari improvements? You can see them…”Carlos Sainz said on Thursday at the Spanish GP. And this Friday, in the obligatory presentation marked by the FIA of the novelties of single-seaters in the pit lane, all the goals of the photographers point towards Ferrari SF23. He is right Carlosthe new things that the Italian team showed in this race are visible to the eye and now the red team hopes that from the free practice this Friday, they represent an important step that marks the before and after the development of the car , which is the start of a precise path on which to start building to get closer to Aston Martin and Red Bull.
The change is well known and very noticeable especially in pontoons. The sides of the car differ in terms of design. Previously, they were curved on their outer edges, and now Ferrari is betting on straight sidepods, with a rear drop that is still not as pronounced and exaggerated as Red Bull’s sidepods. Previously, its central bathtub on the ‘sidepods’ was more curved, and now Ferrari has focused on a central channel that is closer to the concept of its competitors.
This is the old Ferrari
With this change, as Ferrari argues in the official FIA document, the team is pursuing the goal of a “reconditioning of the airflow to the rear wing and rear corner assembly, combined with a different cooling flow for the overall efficiency of the car”.
Especially important is the new engine hood, but above all, the new ground they brought to Barcelona,which provides most of the car’s downforce and ultimate performance. According to Ferrari, this floor was specifically designed to join forces with the sidepod update. “Along with the pontoon update, evolutions have been made to the main body of the floor, as well as to the side of the floor, with new geometries to optimize flow and provide greater loading benefits. “
He Ferrari also introduced changes to the rear wing “to cover the aerodynamic efficiency requirements of the Barcelona circuit,” a basic layout because if the car works well here, it will work well at many other circuits.
“How did it end up in the simulator? I can’t talk about those things because they’re very technical and I don’t want to reveal any secrets. What I can assure you is that we hope it will be a small step forward but it’s not life changing”added Carlos, hiding what was beginning to be revealed on the Barcelona track.
A new way to improve and two main aspects
What Sainz wants to make clear, despite the big changes visible to the eye, hoping that “it’s a small step forward, but it won’t be life-changing”. He added that it will be key for the team to start on the right path to continue improving after a difficult start to the season.
At the beginning of this course, Ferrari He ran a very fast SF23 in one lap, but had some major problems. His car allowed him to fight for the pole positions on Saturday but it was very difficult to find out in the different conditions. It makes a big difference in performance when the track changes or the gas load is different. Especially, in the race, the car is damaged due to greater tire wear. Ferrari was able to go very fast in a very specific work window, but once they got out of there, they couldn’t be consistent in the performance of the tires. They suffered in the race and lost podium options every Sunday. Leclerc was the only one to score a podium raw.
Another big problem is that the car is very difficult to drive. And above all, in an incomprehensible way, it gave him fears when Charles and Carlos did not expect, suddenly, and there was no chance to save the accident or the top. These two issues are what Ferrari wants to start solving with these evolutions.
“The improvement package mainly has two intentions: one is to improve the speed of the race, which is also related to the reason why the car is sometimes unpredictable and very variable from one session to the next and it is very difficult to drive again. from time to time as happened to us with Charles (Leclerc)”, he commented.
“We know that our weakness is the speed of the race above all. We know that after one lap we are not bad. But when the tires are a bit damaged, the car has more fuel and so on, we suffer at race pace and it’s something we’re trying to correct and we’ll try to take a small step forward this weekend. I’m hoping that what we bring this weekend shouldn’t change our lives, far from it, this is a first step, a step towards what we believe is the right direction, but more things will come and we will try to keep up with the race. to get closer to Red Bull”, he added in front of the Spanish press.
“Evolutions in record time and juggling”
Carlos Sainz wanted to highlight the enormous “effort” made by Ferrari to bring “a package of improvements that was not planned for Barcelona” and they did it “in record time”.
“Barcelona is the perfect circuit to bring these improvements. We’re also bringing some extra prototype hard tires to test the things we want to test. I think it’s the perfect circuit and that’s why the team made a huge effort to bring an improvement that in principle was not for Barcelonabut given the situation we are in and how important it is to change course a bit, the team made a brutal effort, Maranello I don’t even want to tell you about the juggling that they had to do to try to get to this Grand Prix and that’s why it motivates me and makes me happy I can see that the team is committed and wants to change the situation”, commented Carlos.
Ferrari needs this movement to be precise. With the cost cap looming, they won’t have much leeway if they have to backtrack on these new ideas.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
