The Scuderia will change their procedures and approach on the Pit Wall and operationally ahead of the upcoming season to be able to fight toe to toe with possible title challengers Red Bull and Mercedes.
Scuderia Ferrari presented their new challenger for the 2023 season, the SF-23, last Tuesday, February 14th. The new machinery brings hope for the Tifosi, who haven’t celebrated a title since 2008 when they won the constructors against McLaren. But, not only the efforts on pre-season in Maranello will matter for the final result this season.
The team has been known for their misjudgment in strategy and running of the operation on and off track. Last season, they had a car that was, arguably, as fast or even faster than World Champions Red Bull at a number of events, but a handful of bad decisions has compromised their ability to compete, to a point that, at the end of the year, there was a real chance of losing second place to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.Notable examples of Ferrari’s shenanigans on track could be seen in Silverstone, when they left race leader Charles Leclerc on track while the Safety Car was called, Hungary when Leclerc was given hard tyres also while leading, which made him fall down the order, and in Q3 in Brazil, where in changeable conditions, Leclerc was put on the intermediates, while everyone else, including teammate Carlos Sainz, went on softs, a strategy that gave Haas’ driver Kevin Magnussen pole position that Friday.
Off track, the team, at the time led by Mattia Binotto, couldn’t improve the car as they had to stay within the budget cap, while rivals Red Bull and notably Mercedes kept improving their cars. Since Austria, both teams shared all the race wins between them while Ferrari always seemed out of contention.
For 2023, Fred Vasseur, former Alfa Romeo/Sauber team principal, takes his place and is set to make some changes in order to help make the scarlet team reach the top again.
Vasseur told journalists at Maranello: “Yes, we’ll make some small adjustments, but what I said last time is that you see just the visible part of the iceberg. And when you spoke about strategy, you were speaking about strategist, and strategy. It’s not just one person pushing on a button. It’s software, it’s the team at the factory, and it’s also a process on the pit wall. And so it’s a complete picture rather than about one person.”
