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Ferrari test driver Marc Gene feels that the Italian side can beat anyone in 2023.
In a recent appearance on the F1 Nation podcast, Marc Gene admitted that even though the team messed up on multiple parameters, there were a lot of things that the team did right.
Talking about the power unit reliability issues, Gene admitted that there were issues on that front, but the team was willing to risk it because Ferrari was looking for performance:
"We've made mistakes this year. First reliability, but we knew that; we wanted performance. We knew we were going to get reliability with the engine later on, and we've been more reliable later on in the season."
When it comes to strategy, Gene admitted that Ferrari did make some mistakes along the way. However, the team was able to get a lot of those things smoothed out by the end of the season, especially in Abu Dhabi, where Charles Leclerc secured P2 by brilliantly executing a 1-stopper against Sergio Perez's 2-stopper. Gene stated:
"Strategy, of course, we've made some mistakes...but I think that that last race [in Abu Dhabi] shows that we can also be perfect in reliability...[and] drivers. Charles was perfect, strategy was perfect. Pit stop, the team was perfect, better than Mercedes and Red Bull. If we really learn from where we have not been perfect...we can beat anyone."
Charles Leclerc pinpoints the area where Ferrari fell behind
In a recent interview, Charles Leclerc talked about the specific reasons due to which the team fell behind and could never recover.
According to the Monegasque driver, Ferrari was unable to fully capitalize on the significant upgrade they received in Barcelona. The Italian side also went through a run of multiple DNFs in Spain and Baku that hurt the team. To add to it, the run of bad strategic calls made things worse. He said:
"The frustrating part came when we got an upgrade and had the fastest car. The new parts in Barcelona really pushed us forward. We made too little out of it. The engine broke down in Barcelona, in Monaco we made a mistake in strategy, the next engine failure came in Baku, then the engine penalty in Canada. The pace was there to win races, but we didn't deliver. That was hard to accept."
It will be interesting to see the kind of challenge Ferrari puts up next season, especially with Mattia Binotto out of the picture.
