There’s been much talk of how Mercedes should proceed this season. Will the current car design ‘concept’ be scrapped immediately or just for next seasons efforts?
Then again given the race performance of the W14 relative to the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in Jeddah, is it in fact worth allowing more time for the techies at Brackley to develop this car as planned?
Ferrari to look like RB19?
Yet its not just Mercedes with potential visible changes soon coming to their F1 car, Ferrari are believed to have a car which looks significantly different to the current model now in the pipeline.
Ferrari are 12 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, though they have Carlos Sainz ahead of both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ title race.
More teams are converging on Red Bull’s interpretation of the new F1 car design regulations and the Italian media is now suggesting Ferrari may be the next to follow.
Tyre degradation Ferrari’s biggest problem
Italy’s Motorsport.com is reporting Ferrari are set to bring an upgraded SF-23 to their first home race in Emilai-Romagne. However the disappointing expectation is the modifications whilst visible will be enough to hold off Aston Martin but not see Ferrari challenge Red Bull.
If the post race analysis of Carlos Sainz in Jeddah is to be believed then Ferrari will be focusing on developing their current philosophy to improve tyre degradation.
Sainz pinpointed this single issue as the biggest area of performance deficit Ferrari need to address. “The last stint on the hards proves we’re not where we want to be,” said the Spaniard.
“We still deg more than the Mercs, we still deg more than the Astons, we still lack a bit of race pace.”
Ferrari upgrades later than expected
Sainz then claimed Ferrari were fully aware of the problem at testing in Bahrain and have an upgrade package in the pipeline.
More importantly Sainz revealed, “The car is doing exactly the same things as in the wind tunnel so we know where the weakness is in the wind tunnel, where the weakness is here, we know where to develop the car, we just need time.”
According to Motorsport.com, Ferrari had hoped to bring the new look SF-23 to round 4 in Azerbaijan but incremental design modifications since made have delayed this by a further 3 weeks.
Ferrari tipped for Australian GP
A new lower Ferrari in design
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has admitted the off season work undertaken by the team in Maranello was focused on aerodynamic efficiency and reducing drag.
However, under the eye of Enrico Cardile, the new SF-23 design is now centred around lowering the car to improve performance.
An unnamed source from Mercedes told AMuS following winter testing, that Red Bull were running their car “ten millimetres lower than everyone else. If we drove that low, the underbody would break.”
Ferrari not copying Reed Bull
With the new ground effect F1 cars the lower they run to the asphalt, the bigger the downforce they generate, the faster they can travel through corners while reducing the degradation of the tyres.
However, the Italian source claims the new look SF-23 will not be copying the RB19 though the side pod arrangement will be visibly different from now.
Mercedes on the other hand appear not to care whether their upcoming side pod modifications mean their W14 resembles the Red Bull.
Aston ‘ever so close’ to an F1 first
Wolff happy with a “red bull sticker”
Toto Wolff meanwhile has admitted his Mercedes team would do whatever is necessary to improve their performance.
“I don’t know, you can call it Red Bull or Aston Martin concept, [but] at the end, if it looks like an English double decker bus, we would do it if it was fast – put a little sticker, [saying] Red Bull, if they want to have it on,” joked Wolff.
“The question is, what is your benchmark? If you look at the Red Bulls, they’re just so quick, that I think we understand the car more is what I meant.”
“I’m looking optimistic in the future because we just need to put it in a different window. We’re changing the bodywork of the car, how the floor works, all of these things mechanically.”
What is a B-Spec F1 car?
It’s unlikely either Mercedes or Ferrari are producing what has traditionally been known as a B-Spec F1 car.
Once an F1 car has been approved by the FIA for the season, if the team make modifications to the chassis which requires an FIA re-test, the chassis tended to be denoted with a B. So the W14 would become the W14B.
In Jeddah Toto Wolff already ruled out this kind of redesign explaining:
“No, I think that it’s out of the question that you change the chassis, because simply there is not enough budget in the cost cap. But changing the way the aerodynamics work and bodywork is perfectly within the scope.”
Porsche F1 aspirations killed by ego
No B-Spec cars for either Merc or Ferrari
There are factors hard wired into the chassis design which cannot be altered once a monocoque has been approved. These include the drivers position in the car which affects the centre of gravity and where any ballast can be placed to adapt the car’s handling from circuit to circuit.
More importantly, Mercedes and Ferrari have big improvements they can bring to their platforms without requiring a B-Spec car redesign.
Ferrari boss believes set up potential huge
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur gave heart to Ferrari fans the world over when analysing the team’s performance last time out in Saudi Arabia.
“Honestly again I don’t think [the problem] is coming from the [lack of ] potential,” he said.
“The main issue that we have today is to be always, all over the weekend, at our maximum. It’s that we are not able to extract 100% of the car in every single session.
“We have to be focused on this before thinking about updates.”
READ MORE: FIA rule change for Australian GP
Ready for Melbourne 🤩@Carlossainz55 and @Charles_Leclerc preview this weekend’s #AusGP 🇦🇺
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 29, 2023
