Ferrari's 2023 Season Challenges
Ferrari is going through a difficult period in the 2023 Formula 1 season. The team quickly lost their championship hopes due to difficulties with the new SF-23 car.
But under new team principal Frédéric Vasseur, the team has made a number of infrastructure changes and vehicle tweaks that seem to have helped turn things around.
In an exclusive interview with Autosport, Charles Leclerc said he was impressed by Ferrari's response to the difficulties at the start of the season.
In particular, he noted that Vasseur helped resolve the historical problem that Ferrari was so heavily influenced by outside criticism in the Italian media.
“I think we've created a bubble that isn't too affected by what's going on outside, which is a really good thing,” Leclerc said. said. “Fred thought the same way. He quickly realized that the media can influence the team in some ways, as they have in the past, so that was one of our focus at the beginning of the year. We have taken steps forward in this regard. That's why I don't think this is the case anymore."
“Of course there are some hard-to-manage points, but that's the same for everyone in the paddock – Ferrari of course zammoment is a little more in the spotlight.”
Disappointment this season is nothing new for Leclerc. In 2020, too, Ferrari had a difficult year as it fell behind its pre-season targets.
But Leclerc thinks things are going much better now because it's clear that Ferrari has more idea than before about the direction it should go.
“We all went through this with the whole crew in 2020, frankly we weren't as good as we expected,” the Monaco driver said. said. “This is a difficult situation. But in moments like these the most important thing is zamI think it's about having a clear direction to work in right now because it's easy to get off track when things don't go your way.”
“This is most zammoment is not caused by a single thing, but there is more than one thing that makes a slight difference in the wrong direction. You need to identify these things and work only on them and not question everything; I believe we did a good job this time.”
“I felt it was a little harder to find that spot again in 2020, but this year I felt like we were right there. We are moving in the right direction.”
Ferrari's effort to overcome its problems in 2023 has not been easy, as it has more to do with the character of the car than the lack of speed.
Unlike previous Ferrari vehicles, the SF-23 is less stabilizing and more aggressive. This can make the vehicle difficult to control and requires more skill from the pilots.
But Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. have started to learn about the character of the car and now it performs better.
Leclerc returned to the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix and Sainz also performed well in the race.
Ferrari looks well positioned to achieve better results for the rest of the season.
