Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari to “suffer too much” when Mattia Bito hands over the reins to Frédéric Vasseur before the 2023 season.
After nearly three decades with Ferrari, Binotto tendered his resignation after the 2022 season when the team principal paid the price for the fact that Ferrari failed to launch a title challenge, cancelled out due to reliability issues, motive force injuries and confusing strategic decisions.
The Scuderia has announced Vasseur as its replacement, and the Frenchman reportedly left Alfa Romeo as early as June.
Leclerc, a 2022 finalist with three wins to his name, believes that if Ferrari can achieve a graceful transition, they will be affected by the change of course.
Revealing that Binotto, who will leave Ferrari on December 31 and Vasseur will take over in early January, remains at the factory, the Monegasque feels “confident” for the 2023 season.
“I’m here because we’re doing a lot of paintings in the simulator,” he said, according to Motorsport. com.
“We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last year to see what the weaknesses of this car were for next year’s car.
“Obviously, Mattia is also at the factory at the moment, racing and looking to help the team prepare for 2023. I think if the transition is done the right way, we don’t suffer too much. “
“I also think that after the 2021 season where we worked very well and restarted it a bit since 2020, it was a complicated season, we worked in the right direction and in the right direction. “
“And that gives me confidence that we will have a competitive car by 2023. “
Halfway through the 2022 season, Ferrari’s F1-75 went from being a fast car to a tire eater.
That, according to some experts, the result of the TD39 and the way Ferrari forced adjustments to be made to the floor as they had been one of the groups exploiting a grey dominance in regulations that created a bit more flexibility on the floor.
But the Scuderia’s suspension would have played a role in its tyre problems.
And that, according to Formu1a. uno, will bring “striking evolutions in the suspension” for the 2023 car, baptized as “675”.
Claiming that the tweaks will be “quite visible,” the 2023 car’s suspension has been changed for further tire wear.
“The last few races [of 2022] have shown difficulties in managing wear, especially on the front axle, a fear of all Ferraris,” the report reads.
He added that “more generally, the use of intermediate tires has created a lot of challenges since Imola, compared to the RB18. In the wet, the test: with reduced speed and grip, it’s never an aerodynamic challenge but a mechanical one.