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Ferrari are struggling to set up their car in a manner that allows the team to be equally strong in qualifying and race trim, according to F1 pundit Michael Schmidt.
Last year, the Scuderia squandered their best chance at a title since 2008 with reliability issues, driver errors, and poor strategic calls. They came into the 2023 season with a new team principal and revised philosophy with hopes of taking the fight to Red Bull with a car that's faster on the straights.
However, after two races, Ferrari are without a podium finish, while Red Bull have clinched consecutive one-two finishes for the first time since 2009. To add insult to injury, Aston Martin and Mercedes appear to have usurped the Prancing Horse in the pecking order.
According to Michael Schmidt from the German outlet Auto Motor und Sport (AMuS), the Scuderia believe in their car concept but are unable to maximize its full potential over the course of a race weekend. He said:
"Ferrari is not questioning their concept. They want to continue the development. The problem I see with Ferrari is that they don't make the best use of their package. It will take time for them to understand how to get the most potential out of it. You get the impression that the SF-23 could do more, but Ferrari is not able to bring it out. If you look at the lap times in qualifying, they are not bad."
Despite this obvious shortcoming, Charles Leclerc was able to get his SF 23 up to P2 during qualifying for the 2023 F1 Saudi Arabian GP before having to serve a 10-place grid penalty for taking on a third control electronics component for their Power Unit. Come race day, the best the Monegasque could manage was a P7 finish.
To put it into perspective, Max Verstappen started three spots behind Leclerc and crossed the line in P2. Schmidt added:
"Ferrari's preparation is currently only about the race, the drivers can never focus on quali and then suddenly find themselves in front of a car they have never driven before, but despite that, Charles Leclerc drives sensationally.
"At the moment, Ferrari isn‘t able to make a car equally strong for qualifying and the race. And even in races there are performance differences in which set of tyres is used (in Jeddah: good on softs, bad on hard)."
Ferrari boss confirms Simone Resta will not return to the team
Frederic Vasseur has shot down suggestions of a former engineer returning to the Scuderia stables.
Simone Resta was part of the Italian team from 2001 to 2018 as a senior design engineer. He left to join Alfa Romeo for a single season before returning to work with the Prancing Horse between 2019 and 2020.
Resta moved to Haas F1 to take on the role of technical director for the American outfit, which is a customer of the Scuderia's on the grid.
In a recent interview with motorsport.com, Vasseur was asked to address rumors of Resta's return to Maranello as the team enters a new era in F1. He said:
"Simone is the technical director of one of our client teams and is doing a good job with Guenther Steiner. Our plans do not include his presence."
The Scuderia now have their eyes set on the 2023 F1 Australian GP to finally get their season rolling in the right direction.
