Ferrari, because it went into crisis in Miami-Corriere.it

Sainz, from third to fifth. Leclerc, positions recovered in the Miami GP: zero. Detachment from the winner Max Verstappen: 53 seconds. At the finish line when his track engineer, Xavi Marcos, communicates the finish order to him, he replies like this: I don’t want to know. After the illusion of recovery in Baku, with pole position and the first podium of the season, there is a return to the bitter reality of this 2023. The American race has sent Ferrari into a tailspin again, as in Bahrain or Jeddah two months ago.

Leclerc: the return of the jumps

Carlos passed by Russell on a Mercedes to be redone, Leclerc unable to overtake Magnussen for a long time, and slipped by Hamilton who started from thirteenth. An unexpected collapse, because updates had been brought to Florida – a new type of surface – which had seemed to work in qualifying. Then the usual performance problems emerged in the race, so far more profound solutions are needed to cure the obscure evils. So much so that Vasseur resorted to Binotto’s old catchphrase: We have to understand. Understand, because there is so much difference between Saturday and Sunday, how it is possible that a car capable of fighting for pole position collapses like this the following day. Leclerc: It felt like we were back at the beginning of the year. We have a lot of work to do: as soon as you go a little out of the tire operating window, everything becomes difficult. At the beginning of the race with the medium tires I couldn’t turn and I had to be careful not to let the front ones slip. The Monegasque also had to deal with a phenomenon that seemed to have been resolved, the porpoising: The car was jumping and hitting the ground on fast corners, more in the race than in the rest of the weekend. There was something strange: it was incredible how fast it moved. Charles has his faults: he found himself starting seventh due to the accident during qualifying, he had dared too much.

Sainz: individual errors and the wrong choice of early pit stop

Carlos also made a mistake: he took a naive 5” penalty for exceeding the speed limits in the pit lane, a serious mistake. But the main problem remains the car. I did a good first part of the match with middle school, I thought I could get Alonso back. Then when we mounted the hard ones, the problems started. The car is not constant, it doesn’t have flexibility and it doesn’t allow us to comply with the strategies: in the end we paid a steep price for having tried to undercut Fernando. The penalty was my fault. In short, an incorrect assessment weighs on Sainz’s fifth place: the early stop (on lap 18) and the two fast three-laps at the pit exit that killed the tyres. further confirmation of the unpredictability of the SF-23, neither technicians nor pilots are able to predict its behavior.

The mystery of an inconstant machine

Updates will arrive in Imola (May 21), and others will also be in Barcelona (June 4). In Barcelona we will try to change the car, to go in another direction to see if it can help improve the race pace Sainz explained, anticipating changes in the technical direction, perhaps also in terms of 2024. The relapse in Miami is causing anxiety in view of the European triptych, Vasseur now has to run for cover: it was a tough GP, the pace wasn’t bad on Saturday but we weren’t able to take advantage of it. We have to understand why the car is so inconsistent: in certain parts of the race we weren’t bad, Carlos’ first stint with the middle school. In some laps we can push and in others not…. Red mystery.