Ferrari: Increasing driver confidence is critical to F1 growth

Ferrari believes that increasing driver confidence in its SF-23 is crucial to closing the deficit with Red Bull in Formula 1
Ferrari

(Motorsports news) The Italian team, Ferrari, has had a difficult first half of the 2023 season, with its car struggling to generate consistent race results while being quick on a single lap. It has made some impressive advances with recent modifications, though, and appears to be closing in on the dominant Red Bull team.

Ferrari’s Team principal Frederic Vasseur believes that the final stage in fighting for victories is to offer a car that gives drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz more confidence because he believes they are unable to take all of the potential out of it. Reflecting on the first half of the season, Vasseur stated that lap time has been eroding since the car’s handling does not inspire confidence.

“It wasn’t just a question of pure performance, because something happened that affected the Ferrari’s drivers’ confidence in the car,” Frederic Vasseur explained. “When you enter a corner and there is a loss of load aerodynamic, there is also a loss of balance.” As a result, you begin to sense understeer. Add to it the wind, which changes from lap to lap and never has the same intensity, and the obstacles mount.

“Ferrari lacks performance stability.” As a result, we lose a little performance from our drivers’ lap after lap since they never have the same conditions and lose confidence in the car. “Ferrari need to try to put the drivers at the forefront of our priorities.” It isn’t the simplest or even the quickest route to progress because adding downforce everywhere would be much easier.

Both Leclerc and Sainz have stated openly that the SF-23 is difficult to drive at the limit in gusts due to its erratic performance. Frederic Vasseur explained the challenges at hand, saying that the feature was difficult to deal with because it related to highly specific settings.

“The Ferarri’s car is too sensitive when there’s a diagonal wind,” Vasseur defined. “We’re trying to improve in this area because when the wind is blowing directly at us, we don’t have any problems.” Although the British Grand Prix was a poor performance for the team Ferrari, Vasseur is confident that the performance in Hungary this weekend will be better.

“I can say that Ferrari will go better in the slower corners and 90-degree corners than in the longer corners,” he remarked. “At least, that’s what we’ve observed thus far.” We can hope for a pole, but I believe the wind will be the deciding factor.” Spa might possibly be a track that fits our single-seaters qualities. There’s the Bus Stop chicane and La Source, but just two high-speed turns.”

Also read: Sebastian Vettel “has some ideas” for his F1 career

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