Scuderia Ferrari has gone off to a terrible start to the season by its high standards. The Italian team is sitting 4th in the constructor's championship after the first 3 rounds, 30 points behind 3rd placed Mercedes & 39 behind 2nd placed Aston Martin. With races soon to come thick and fast following the ‘spring break’ created by the absence of the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari has to make the important call - whether to upgrade the current car or roll out a ‘B-spec’ car with significant changes.
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When asked about the same, the newly appointed Scuderia Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said “I think that we will have a flow of updates that some will come… Not at Baku, because Baku we have the aero package for the level of downforce, [and] with the Sprint race it’s not the easiest one. But from Miami, Imola, not Monaco, but Barcelona – each race will have an update on the car.”
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“I don’t know if you can speak about… It’s not a B-car, if it’s what you want to say. We won’t come with something completely different; we’ll continue to update this one and we’ll try to update massively,” he added. “To do a new project during the season, to start from scratch, to do a new car... With the cost cap first, but also considering the restriction of the wind tunnel time, I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult. Also, on our side, we have the feeling – and I hope that we are right and we are moving in the right direction – that we have still tonnes of room for improvement on the car.”
While Vasseur has completely ruled out a ‘B-spec’ car, Ferrari will still have to explore a lot into the SF-23 concept to find the much-needed pace. Aston Martin - to everyone’s surprise - leapfrogged almost the entire field with its AMR 23, going from 7th in the constructor's championship last year, to 2nd after the 3 opening rounds this year. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has scored 3 podiums in a row, while Ferrari has scored none so far. With the series of updates coming from the Italian outfit, it will be interesting to see how the developed SF-23 fares against the Mercedes W14 & AMR23, with Red Bull being far clear of the entire field with its RB19.
