It's certainly not the season Ferrari he expected. At the beginning of the year, in Maranello – especially after last year – they strongly believed in the title chase with Red Bull. Things, however, went differently for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The Milton Keynes team, with Max Verstappen undisputed leader, he proved to be clearly superior to his opponents, winning all the current twelve races held. A result that gives a good idea of the progress of the 2023 season, ready to hand itself over to Verstappen – reached his eighth consecutive victory.
Ferrari, plans have changed
At Ferrari, bearing in mind the Red Bull dominance, the target for this season it became second place in the constructors' championship. Not an easy goal, considering that after Verstappen the rival teams are all very close. TO SPA & WELLNESS, in fact, Ferrari has proven to be the second force on the track, while at Silverstone and Hungary Mercedes e McLaren they had something more, especially in terms of pace. The Red team is currently fourth in the rankings builders, with 5 points behind Aston Martin and 56 from Mercedes, the real opponent to try to reach during this second part of the season.
Sainz: “We expected something more”
With plans changed, Ferrari must adapt to a new type of mentality. Carlos is trying to tell all this Sainz which, based on what was collected by Motorsport.com, has explained mental change that must exist within the team if the goal is to become the second force in the world championship: “It was obviously frustrating start the season realizing that Red Bull was one step ahead of us and that it would be very difficult to challenge them. I think we all expected to have a more competitive car, we wanted to be more in the fight. For this reason we see several ups and downs during the weekends: in some you could fight for third position, while in others you can finish eighth, which in terms of performance could mean that you are either +0.1s faster than the others or the opposite, and this is not a big gap."
Sainz raises his voice: “We must accept that we cannot always win”
There have been many ups and downs at Ferrari. Sainz is aware of this and asks for the team to adapt to this situation: “In the end, if you're in Ferrari it's clearly very different whether you finish the race in third or eighth place. And now, we simply have to accept that we are in this fight. If for one weekend we can fight hard for fifth position and we get it, we need to celebrate the fact that we achieved the most with what we have for this season."
