Ferrari says it will not go down the route of developing a B-spec car following its worst start to a Formula 1 season in 14 years.
Despite Ferrari sitting fourth in the constructors’ championship, the Italian outfit’s points total after three races is its lowest since 2009, when it failed to score a single point.
The lack of performance has led to speculation Ferrari could seek a major shift in car concept in a bid to turn its season around.
But team principal Fred Vasseur has rejected this theory, instead revealing Ferrari’s upgrade plan over the next few races that he hopes can kickstart a run of form.
Asked if Ferrari was considering changing the concept of its 2023 car, Vasseur said, as quoted by Motorsport.com: “No, I don’t think so.
“We have a flow of updates that will come, not for Baku, because we have the aero package for the level of downforce, and with the sprint race it is not the easiest one, but for Miami, Imola, not Monaco, and Barcelona. At each race, we’ll have an update on the car.
“We are sticking to the plan. We have made some adjustments in terms of balance and behaviour, and it was much better in Melbourne, and we’ll continue in this direction.
“It’s not a B-car if that is what you want to say. We won’t come with something completely different. We will continue to update this one and we’ll try to update massively.”
Vasseur explained that to effectively start from scratch with a revised concept under F1’s cost cap and with restrictions on wind tunnel hours was not “impossible” but would be “very difficult”.
Ferrari has chosen to respond to its poor start to the year by accelerating the introduction of planned upgrades, rather than make wholesale changes to the SF-23.
“You have always a plan of development before the season, and then you have to react due to the circumstances, due to the competitiveness of the car, and due to the behaviour of the car. We took action very quickly,” Vasseur added.
“We brought some good updates in Melbourne, and we will continue. What we can do is to push to try to speed up this process, perhaps to take a direction a bit different in terms of balance and so on.
“But we can’t change massively the plan after three races and say, ‘okay, we have to go in another direction.'”
But while a revised car concept is off the cards for this year, Vasseur said he would be open to going a different direction on the team’s 2024 car if performances don’t improve.
“The question is [really] about the cost cap: if you want to do a carryover or not,” he said. “And which parts do you want to carry over between one season to the other one – like the big components of the gearbox or monocoque? It’s a question that we’ll have to manage with the cost cap.
“With the strategy of development, I think we have good updates. And we’ll see later on into the season if we want to do a continuous improvement of this one, and we have room for improvement, or if we have to change more massively the direction. We will see that much later.”
