Keeping Red Bull aside, the 2022 F1 regulations brought the grid closer and proved that the FIA was right about having more competition on the track. The 2023 season was a true testament to this, with six out of ten teams competing for podium places. Because of this, Ferrari team principal feels that the current regulations are more ‘punishing’ than the pre-2022 era.
Vasseur said on Beyond The Grid podcast,
“If you compare five years ago, very often you had the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls, the two Ferraris, and if the driver was doing a mistake, he was losing one position, perhaps two. Today, you have a group of sometimes 10 or 12 cars who are able to fight for the first row.”
Vasseur was talking about 2023, where several teams were fighting for the podium places. Of course, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were favorites to win every race. Behind him, however, the Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren drivers were tussling with each other. There were times when Alpine too, showed signs of very strong pace.
Initially, the 2022 regulations went in favor of Ferrari and Red Bull, with the latter capitalizing on it more than the Italian outfit. The field wasn’t as close as it was in 2023, with only one out of 67 podium finishes going to a team other than Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes (Lando Norris at Imola).
Heading into the 2024 season, the field is expected to be even closer. More teams could join in on the fight for podium places and maybe even wins. Nevertheless, Red Bull is still the target to beat for every team, and Ferrari in particular, is adamant about dethroning them.
Ferrari’s little steps towards development
After the regulation changes of 2022, Ferrari showed massive signs of improvement. The Tifosi was elated and hopeful about the championship finally coming back to Maranello for the first time since 2008. However, things slowly began to downgrade. Red Bull outperformed them in terms of development and in the end, they finished P2, 205 points behind the Austrian outfit.
In 2023, the story was different. They had a very slow start, and were behind Mercedes and Aston Martin. However, steady development helped them get into the fight for P2 towards the end of the season, where they closely lost out to Mercedes.
They were the only team to stop Red Bull from having an invincible season by claiming the victory in Singapore. However, they are now looking for more as team principal Fred Vasseur provided important insight to the upcoming challenger.
”We are changing 95% of the car’s components. The percentage should be taken as an indicative reference and not necessarily valid in absolute terms,” Vasseur said. Interestingly, Mercedes and McLaren would also look to do the same and therefore, Vasseur’s concern about punishing regulations is about to get more real.
