A sentence I never thought I would say, let alone write for the entire F1 world to see: Ferrari will NOT chase the 2024 Drivers’ Championship. And here’s why.
Who would have imagined that after Michael Schumacher ended a 21-year drought at Ferrari, with the German gaining world name in 2000 to secure the team the first of six drivers’ crowns in 8 years, another 15-year crisis would ensue?
It is said that good fortune begets good fortune, but conversely, failure begets failure. Ask the tifosi.
From expectations to misery, from dreams to nightmares, one search for a name has disintegrated after another, dissolving into a spiral of mistakes and mistakes, mistakes and missed opportunities.
This year, the dream will have to be consistency and improvement, and then the effects will come. To first set a higher risk in the constructors’ championship, and then maybe the trophies in the drivers’ championship will stay for next year.
But, right now, the deficit to Red Bull is too big, so more small steps forward in the here and now to achieve the long-term objective.
Ferrari lost the ball last season by giving Red Bull one open goal after another, to the point that Ralf Schumacher nicknamed Scuderia Red Bull’s B team or C team.
They not only recorded two DNSs – Carlos Sainz out of the Qatar Grand Prix due to a fuel leak (even though it was discovered four hours before the race) and Charles Leclerc did not line up in second place on the Brazilian GP grid when a hydraulic issue caused him to crash on the formation lap – but they also had a DSQ in Austin.
And those are three cases where problems have been missed.
Leclerc did not finish in Bahrain or Australia and also earned a grid penalty in Saudi Arabia for new engine parts, despite it being only the second race of the season, while a mistake-filled weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix ended with his retirement. .
Sainz retired from the races in Belgium and Abu Dhabi. They are retirements and 3 scoring failures in a season in which the championship winner has recorded 22 podiums in 22 races.
It’s the problems lost due to unforced errors and missed opportunities that team boss Fred Vasseur says they want to build on this season.
“You can make the list. Believe me, I’ve done the list a few times and I have the rating in mind for any issues,” he said.
“Of course, we have conceded more problems than our competition and that means we want to work on that for next year, to be more opportunistic and more efficient. That’s where we want to improve. Obviously, it’s a huge prospect in terms of problems. .
Those lost points, which often benefitted Mercedes, meant Ferrari lost second place in the Constructors’ Championship by a measly three points.
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Although Ferrari announced earlier this week that it would continue with Charles Leclerc for several more years, the Scuderia’s confidence in the five-time Grand Prix winner has many marks.
Leclerc has made a number of high-profile mistakes over his five Ferrari years with former F1 driver Johnny Herbert rightly telling PlanetF1.com those “mistakes are something you don’t see from Max, you don’t really see that from Lewis”.
It begs the question, can Ferrari count on Leclerc when it matters most?
Although he is arguably one of the fastest drivers on a single lap in Formula 1, when it comes to racing, Leclerc’s temperament can and has led to stupid mistakes, which has also earned him a reputation as a quick crasher.
As for Carlos Sainz, he may be a little bit more consistent and last year in Singapore he put in the best drive Formula 1 has ever seen from him, but he too can throw in a disaster or two. Or even worse, string them together.
The drivers want consistency from the team, but the team needs the same back from them.
But what the team and drivers want is a car that is consistent and eliminates the inconsistency of the SF-23.
One of the loudest court cases from drivers last season was that the car was inconsistent, even over the distance of a Grand Prix, and its characteristics changed depending on the tyre compound. At times, Leclerc and Sainz even had opposite feelings.
The car wasn’t a bad car in terms of itself, but it was also considered seriously lacking. And Ferrari couldn’t wait for those moments to come.
From the grip on corner access to the lack of grip in the middle of the corner, Charles Leclerc wondered if his car had broken down, making the loss of performance apparent.
Additionally, the wind-sensitive SF-23 burned its tires, disconcerting balance and handling when entering and exiting its window.
Ferrari did make improvements as the year progressed but, blighted by the slightest change in wind speed or temperature, Leclerc declared it was still a “very difficult” car to drive.
Dubbed “peaky” by Sainz, Vasseur has vowed an almost complete overhaul of the car over the winter with Ferrari changing “95 per cent” of it.
The remaining five per cent would be the front-thrust, rear-wheel drive design, but even that changed with a “keel sort”, as the Italian media called it, to generate airflow into the Venturi channels.
Changes to the gearbox layout and the introduction of a by-pass duct are reportedly just two big changes Ferrari will introduce as they bid to close the gap to Red Bull.
Imagine preaching from the bottom line in a car of “unprecedented speed” and then losing the inaugural race of the crusade in 50 seconds.
Or claim that he will fight for the world name but is even in the war for the podium in the standings?
Or how about talking about being more competitive, more wins, more this, more that, and instead your stats (each and every one of them) are passed on?
It was, in a nutshell, Ferrari’s preparation for the 2023 pre-season.
The good news this year is that they seem to have learned the lesson that hype doesn’t win races, it destroys confidence.
Ferrari will reportedly go to great lengths to promote its chances in 2024, to the point that it will post some images and quotes for the launch and then let the car do the talking on the track.
Although this probably won’t distract the Scuderia at all, after all, it’s the Italian national team, if not religion, that will ease some tension for everyone in the team.
If the drivers and team can fix the inconsistencies that cost them dearly in 2023, then Ferrari can build a forged platform for the Constructors’ Championship and then launch an all-out attack in 2025.
First the Mercedes-McLaren-Aston Martin battle, then the Red Bull war.
The tifosi have waited so long that another year would probably not hurt.
Read next: Charles Leclerc’s new contract: Ferrari star’s F1 win rate (so far)