Ferrari working on upgrades that could “completely change” their F1 season, claims Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz has talked about the issues of Ferrari this season and what they are doing to rectify them.
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Carlos Sainz (Credits: Planet F1)
Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari F1 driver, has admitted that his team has found a new development path for its SF-23. In his opinion, it could potentially change the 2023 F1 campaign for the Maranello-based team. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have found it difficult to keep pace with the front runners in the first two races of the ongoing campaign.
Ahead of the Saudi Arabian weekend, it was determined that Ferrari struggled for pace more than tire degradation in Bahrain. However, despite racing on a smooth tarmac in Jeddah, the team struggled a lot with its tire management compared to teams like Mercedes, Aston Martin, Red Bull, etc. Leclerc and Sainz were just not able to keep pace with the cars that were running ahead of them.
When Ferrari put the hard compounds on both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz’s car, the duo was just not able to turn up the tires. Moreover, as the race went on, the Ferrari duo kept on falling behind and, in the end, finished a mega 43-seconds behind the winner, Sergio Perez. All this culminated in Fred Vasseur admitting that Ferrari’s weak spot this year is “clearly on the management of the different compounds.”
Moreover, having had the first-hand experience of taking the SF-23 for a spin during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz believes, that his team’s problems are not track-specific. He further feels that the Italian outfit, after looking at everything, has found a new path that could reap huge rewards in the upcoming F1 events.
Carlos Sainz on Ferrari following a new development path
While stressing about his team, Sainz added, “I think the last stint on the hard proves that we are not where we want to be, that we still deg more than the Mercedes, that we still deg more than the Astons, and we lack a bit of race pace, I’m a bit surprised because after Friday and before the weekend, I thought that we had a chance of being the second force here in Jeddah. But I think that last stint on the hard proves that we still have a lot of work to do. We need to wait for the developments to come to see if we can improve that weakness. The thing is that the car is doing exactly the same as in the wind tunnel, so we know where the weakness is. We identified it already in Bahrain.“
Carlos Sainz has confirmed that the Italian outfit knows what is wrong with its car. He has further admitted that Ferrari knew of the SF-23’s weakness after the Bahrain GP weekend. While dressing even more, he added, “We know where to develop the car, we just need time because, obviously, we cannot bring the upgrades as soon as tomorrow, but I’m positive that this team is capable of bringing them early in the season.“
Despite getting off to an average start during the 2023 F1 campaign, Carlos Sainz is optimistic that Ferrari can flip a switch and extract performance from its SF-23. However, he has made it known that it would take time for the team to optimize the SF-23 to desired levels. The current campaign is only two races down and has 21 races left on the calendar.
Considering this fact, would Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz be able to turn around Ferrari’s season for the better? This is a big question mark, but Ferrari has got all the manpower that it could ask for. Currently, Red Bull is running away with the Championship, and it will be absolutely crucial for Ferrari to make a big step up if they are to challenge them this year.
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Rishabh Negi
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