What has happened to Ferrari? A look into their disastrous start to the 2023 F1 season

Scuderia Ferrari is one of the most successful teams in Formula 1. Having been a part of the pinnacle of motorsports since the start, it has racked up a pretty impressive amount of wins and championships. The team has won more than 200 races in its F1 stint. Over the years, the team has bagged 15 world driver’s championships and 16 constructors titles. However, there is one issue that stands in front of them.

The last time Ferrari won the drivers title was in the 2007 F1 season with Kimi Raikkonen. On the other hand they won the constructors title in 2008. After that, the Scuderia has had some hard luck trying to bag another championship. The team has always been fast but they have never been good enough to fight for the title over the first few years. This being following the start of the turbo hybrid era.

Following a horrible 2020 season, the red squad impressed many as they went on to improve their results and pace drastically in 2021. However, it was much better for 2022 where Ferrari ended up finishing 2nd in the constructors with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc at the helm. Sadly, that was the closest that they could be to winning a world championship. Ever since the start of the turbo hybrid era, Ferrari has been on the back foot when it comes to competing with the other top teams.

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The 2023 F1 season is Ferrari’s worst start to the season since 2010

After the first three races have concluded, it has been observed that the Scuderia has had its worst start to the season in 13 years. The team made a lot of mistakes last year when it came to strategy and driver errors. This ultimately meant that Max Verstappen and Red Bull ran away with the title last hear. This seems to be the continuing cast for the 2023 F1 season.

After winning the race and scoring a 1-2 finish in Bahrain last year. This year, the team could only manage a P4 finish with Carlos Sainz while Charles Leclerc had to retire from the race. This has been a difficult time for the boys in red as they are not living up to their team’s expectations. While Ferrari did manage to improve their pitstops, they have fallen back in other areas.

Ferrari’s pace has not changed while everyone has become faster

When the post race data was checked, it was revealed that Ferrari did not make a significant pace gain while everyone managed to do so. While all the teams are improving their pace, it seems as if the Scuderia are not up to the mark. While the car is comparatively fast, it isn’t very competitive when compared to Aston Martin and Mercedes.

Last year, Ferrari was a powerhouse with Mattia Binotto and Charles Leclerc leading the charge with Carlos Sainz. At many races, they were faster than Red Bull. Coming into 2023, it seems as if everyone have gained performance except for Ferrari. Aston Martin’s approach to hire staff from the top constructors has not gone in vain. The team has managed three back to back podium finishes with Australian GP handing them a P3 and P4.

Australian GP was a disaster for Ferrari

Coming into the weekend, lot of fans hoped to see the Scuderia shine on the streets of Melbourne. Charles Leclerc had won the race last year in a dominating performance. However, it all went topsy turvy for the Monegasque as he was barely able to survive 3 corners. The Ferrari driver made contact with Stroll which led him to retire from the race on the spot.

All eyes shifted toward Carlos Sainz who was Ferrari’s only hope to salvage something out of this race. However, bad luck struck as Alex Albon’s crash led to a safety car compromising the Spaniard’s pit strategy. Nevertheless, he fought back and managed to get up to P4 until the disastrous red flag restart. As soon as the lights went out, he pushed forward but ended up hitting Fernando Alonso and throwing him in a spin.

Ferrari’s start to the season couldn’t have gone any worse

After a chaotic restart, the race was stopped again and a lap under the safety car was carried out. However, due to Sainz’s contact with Fernando, he was handed a 5 second penalty which led to the Spaniard being classified dead last amongst the finishers post race. This meant that Ferrari left Australia pointless. It was a huge blow to the Maranello based squad who had prepared extensively. However, a pace deficit and bad luck destroyed their chances of getting a good result.

Looking at the first three races of the season, Ferrari has a lot of catching up to do. Especially when it comes to developing their car. With the Red Bulls getting faster every race, Aston Martin and Mercedes are also implementing changes in an attempt to catch up. Sadly, by the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like the Scuderia will have a championship trophy to take home this year.

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