Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was chasing the podium when he was forced to retire from the opening race of the 2023 season in Bahrain. Meanwhile, his rival Max Verstappen comfortably stormed to victory creating a lead in the championship standings.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has explained the reason for Ferrari’s failure to pose a threat to the Milton-Keynes-based team. The Austrian thinks that the Maranello-squad has the most ‘powerful engine’ on the track in 2023. Still, there is something that the team has not been able to find a solution to.
Despite having the most powerful advantage, both Leclerc and Sainz saw a massive gap to Verstappen. Both the drivers suffered from extreme tyre degradation as compared to their rivals.
Charles Leclerc suffered a mecanical issue for the second time round the sakhir track, costing him a sure shot at the podium. Its the first DNF by a Ferrari driver in the season-opening race since 2016.
Could it be just bad luck or Human error ? #TheSeasonOfStrat #F1 pic.twitter.com/Ne86zxAUd4
— Daniel Mwebaza (@mwebaza_daniel) March 13, 2023
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Ferrari’s tyre problem has worsened
The Scuderia engineers believe that this is a one-off problem. They think that the reason behind extreme tyre degradation in Bahrain was its sharp asphalt.
But according to Marko, the Italian giant has been suffering from this problem since the 2022 season. The Austrian advisor believes that heading into 2023, the team’s tyre management has worsened.
Furthermore, Marko said that Red Bull had assumed that Ferrari would work on its weaknesses. While the top speed has improved significantly, the problem with tyre wear still persists and has degraded even more as compared to Red Bull.
Helmut Marko ranks 2023 F1 engines
In 2022, Ferrari engines produced the most acceleration in low-speed corners. However, it suffered problems in the high-speed corners as compared to Honda engines.
The new data after the first race of the 2023 season has revealed that the team has figured out that problem. In the third session of the Bahrain qualifying, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were seen running an extra 1mph on the main straight as compared to Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
On top of that, the team also had an additional 1.9mph in the high-speed corners.
Marko said that his team does not have an exact PU figure through which they can compare. But information and data gathered have shown that Ferrari is at the top with its powerful PU.
The 79-year-old ranked Honda second and Mercedes pretty much on par.
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