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After an intense 2022 F1 season, Ferrari and Mercedes are aiming high for next season. Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominated the field as they won both the world championships with ease. Hence, both the frontrunning teams are planning to jumpstart their preparations to fight the reining world champions next season.
Ferrari and Mercedes are two of the five teams that will be taking part in extensive tire test runs over the winter break. Pirelli will soon be introducing a new 'C1' tire compound and will also improve the wet weather tires for the next season. Since Red Bull are not taking part in these tire tests, it is great news for their rivals.
Collecting data on new parts like tire compounds is massively beneficial for F1 teams. Hence, these tire tests during the winter break will help Ferrari and Mercedes get a good headstart for the 2023 F1 season.
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are working hard at Maranello, testing both the wet and dry tires at the Fiorano Circuit. Mercedes have also planned dry tire testing in February 2023 at Paul Ricard. Other teams that will take part in the testing include Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo, and Aston Martin.
McLaren, Red Bull, Alpine, Williams, and Haas are the teams that won't be doing any additional winter testing. Though Pirelli gave them the contract to test the new tires, there was no response from the teams.
Red Bull reveals weight woes during 2022 F1 season and their strategy for the future
After a dominant 2022 F1 season, Red Bull's technical director, Pierre Wache, discussed how the team struggled quite a lot regarding the weight of their RB18 car. While the rest of the field was trying to fix the porpoising issue, the frontrunning team was trying to reduce RB18's weight.
However, the good news is that Red Bull have already found a way to reduce weight and further reduce lap times. This is part of their strategy to defeat their rivals in the 2023 F1 season.
The team's technical director Pierre Wache said:
"This year, the updates focused mainly on the weight, but also on the aerodynamic performance of the RB18. In any case, the car is still substantially too heavy. We can still improve on that next year. The other teams are much closer to the limit, so that's a lot of 'free lap time' as we would call it."
He further added:
"The fact that we didn't put enough resources into the car, and also maybe our interpretation of some of the new FIA tests affected us more than some of other teams such as the load on the chassis. It was close to 20 kilos at the beginning of the season."
As next season approaches, it is likely that Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull will be in a three-way battle for the championships. Since there is no major rule change similar to the 2022 F1 season, we might not see the grid shake-up next year.
