The beginning of Ferrari’s season is “worse than expected”
Ferrari has had a very bad start to the season. The scenario that was envisaged in February doesn't seem to be going the right way. In fact, it is even worse than what was imagined after the Bahrain tests.
The Scuderia is experiencing a difficult start to the season, which is not living up to the expectations set after last year’s good performance, where Charles Leclerc fought for the top spot in the championship for several months. Ferrari was expected to deliver in this 2023 season. Charles Leclerc and his team believed they could compete with Max Verstappen, as they had done in the previous season.
A very disappointing start to the season
Instead, the Italian team found themselves in trouble, with a car far from expectations. Carlos Sainz is only fifth in the championship, with 44 points. He is preceded by the two Red Bulls, Fernando Alonso, and Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, is ten points further down, in seventh place only.
As every year, there are high expectations for the Scuderia. But with the assessment of pre-season testing in Bahrain, a troubling and alarming scenario has emerged. And as the season progresses, it turns out to be even worse than expected, much worse. Revealed by Roberto Chinchero, an Italian journalist specialized in F1.
Ferrari changed team manager during the offseason. Frederic Vasseur arrived in a Scuderia plagued by doubts after the end of the 2022 season. The former Alfa Romeo manager was therefore highly anticipated from his first races. Unfortunately, things quickly went wrong. There was a lot of media pressure on the Scuderia’s shoulders from the very beginning with the new team manager. But we need to give Frederic Vasseur time, I believe he’s the right person, added the Italian journalist.
The departures of key individuals have worsened the scenario
The Scuderia Ferrari has suffered two heavy losses, who will leave the team at the end of the season. The two Frenchmen Laurent Mekies and David Sanchez have returned to their former teams. The former has gone back to Faenza and AlphaTauri, while the aerodynamic engineer is heading back to McLaren. These events have added to Ferrari’s disappointing results. « The departures of Laurent and David did not help. People had the impression that everyone was leaving Scuderia, which is not true. […] The timing was bad for Frédéric Vasseur. »
However, the Italian journalist still wants to believe in a comeback. Ferrari is expected to bring significant aerodynamic changes for the Spanish Grand Prix. These developments should enable Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to achieve better results than their current pace and get back in the battle with Aston Martin and Mercedes. Barcelona will probably be the turning point of the season for Ferrari. There is something in the new aerodynamics of the car. Barcelona will be a turning point for Ferrari, concluded Roberto Chinchero.
Ferrari can still make a comeback in the race of front-running cars. This would help to forget the start of the season, where nothing seemed to go as planned.
