Season results: Scuderia Ferrari – all Formula 1 news 2023

Ferrari changed the team management, renewed the car, got more out of the power plant, but the result remains the same.

As always with Ferrari, expectations for the start of the season were very high. The team took into account the experience of last year and tried to improve everything, so when presenting the SF-23, new leader Frederic Vasseur immediately set the maximum goal: Ferrari must win.

Without this constantly repeated task, the team would certainly have achieved more. “Ferrari can have no other goal than first place.” Despite the fact that the last time we took first place in the Constructors’ Championship, and for the Scuderia this is especially important, the last time was in 2008. Fifteen years ago.

Year after year, everyone on the team works under extreme pressure. Everyone expects victories only from Ferrari, but this also results in constant mistakes that accumulate over the course of the season and drag the team back.

This year Ferrari only lost three points to Mercedes with seven pole positions, nine podiums and one win. But Mercedes has worse statistics: one pole, eight podiums and zero wins, so it’s a case of missed opportunities. The Italian press vomited bile after every strategic miscalculation or accident, the team tried to react and the rest of the world declared the fact: this has been the case in recent years.

The obvious reason is staff. There are not many excellent specialists who are willing to move from rainy British Northamptonshire to sunny Maranello, and besides, Ferrari has always patriotically preferred Italians.

The successes of the Scuderia during the championship years are largely due to the fact that its composition at the time was international – Luca di Montezemolo brought the best together.

But now Montezemolo is not in the team. There is no Frenchman Todt, no British Brown, no German Schumacher. And even then, it took several years for this star cast to reach the top.

Now Red Bull Racing are at the top, losing to Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship by more than half in terms of points for the season. And it is impossible to catch up on such a backlog before regulations change. This means that Vasseur must create a machine by 2026 that is as refined as the clock that Red Bull has now. Only then can it be said at the presentation: ‘Ferrari must win.’ Do it first, say it later.

No. But it wasn’t that bad. Ferrari fought evenly in qualifying and sometimes won, which gave hope to its fans. But on the racing distance it was inferior: the car wore out the tires a lot, and it was not possible to completely solve this problem. At the end of the season, Vasseur said everything became clear during winter testing in Bahrain.

Frédéric Vasseur: “Expectations were too high at the start of the season, but we soon realized what really happened. This required several rounds of testing in Bahrain. No, we realized that when we were working on the simulator before Bahrain.

But I liked how the team dealt with difficulties. We had to go through difficult moments in Jeddah, Miami, Spain, Netherlands. The stage in Zandvoort was relatively recent and they almost overtook us by a lap. But since then the team has made a huge step forward and this is a good sign for the future.”

The team consistently earned points in all races of the season, except Australia, where Leclerc was eliminated and Sainz was fined. Perhaps it was this race that decided the fate of second place in the Constructors’ Championship, but no one knew that at the time.

Charles and Carlos spent the season on almost equal terms. It was clear that the Scuderia were betting on Leclerc, but Sainz gave the team their only win of the season and Charles earned only six more points. Over a season of 22 races, the difference turned out to be minimal.

The most productive stage was in Singapore: Sainz won and Leclerc finished fourth. Vasser personally took the podium for the team cup.

Both drivers will remain in the team for the coming season – Leclerc has signed another multi-year contract and Sainz is actively being wooed by Audi, but so far these are just rumors.