Ferrari Has Discovered the Key Factor That Has So Far Resulted in Them Lagging Behind Red Bull

Senior Ferrari performance engineer Jock Clear recently gave an interview where he explained how his side have discovered the reason for why they have been lagging behind Red Bull. The 60-year-old explained how one of the key problems with the Italian outfit has been that of consistency and that the SF-23 has a low operating window.

As quoted by it.motorsport.com, Clear said, “It goes out of the ideal window very quickly and that’s a difficulty for us, understanding why. I think we understand why, it could be part of the DNA of this car. For next year we are focusing on making the single-seater more benign, a car that does not have such a narrow operating window“.

The primary difficulty that Ferrari have had in 2023 is that their car has often been strong during qualifying. However, it is during the race that they usually suffer severely. The SF-23 has not been kind on the tires and as a result, Ferrari are not able to utilize a better strategy to their advantage to compete against the likes of Red Bull.

However, Clear believes that Ferrari now understand how they can expand their operating window and make it similar to Red Bull. The Milton Keynes outfit have been in a world of domination of their own as they have won all the races in the 2023 season, barring one.

Even though Ferrari have stated that they have discovered why they have been lagging behind Red Bull so far, it is pertinent to note that the Milton Keynes outfit have no plans of easing off anytime soon. Red Bull aero God Adrian Newey revealed an update about the RB20 a few weeks ago that is likely to be an ominous warning for the rival teams.

Newey believes no team will be able to catch up to Red Bull in 2024

A few weeks ago former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan had a conversation with Adrian Newey about what Red Bull’s plans are for the 2024 season. The Irish businessman revealed on one of the episodes of the Formula for Success podcast that he was stunned by what the 64-year-old Briton told him.

Jordan said, “Adrian tells me that he feels that the evolution of what they’ve got at the moment is going to be so difficult for anyone to catch up with. So, please, folks out there, prepare yourself either for a boring time or an exciting time, depending on whether you’re a Red Bull fan or not“.

Considering that Red Bull have utterly dominated the 2023 season, it will be interesting to see how much more can they improve in the next campaign.