After all the excitement for the 2023 car reveal in Fiorano, the iconic team radio between the C2 and the reassuring words of the new Team Principal Freud Vasseur came testing in Bahrain.
The car didn’t perform so well but we were comforted by the reviews from each driver about testing on weakness and on worst case scenarios. That’s why, in the end, we were hopeful.
After suffering a bit in qualifying, Ferrari's Team Principal explained that the strategy was to sacrifice the pole for Leclerc in order to save a new pair of soft tires for the race.
At the start, all the drivers were using used soft tires with the exception of Leclerc who was driving on new softs.
What we knew was that due to high temperature in Bahrain, medium tires were not a good choice, but we also knew that one of Ferrari’s weaknesses is tire degradation. So, will this strategy be effective?
And then it’s lights out in Bahrain.
Our Ferrari boys started at P3 and P4, Charles and Carlos respectively, after the two Redbulls.
As said before, the number 16 was the only driver on the grid with brand new tires.
As soon as the lights were out, Carlos tried to defend his position while taking advantage on Perez but ended up being pushed almost to the pits.
Thankfully he was able to recover and maintain the position. After Turn 1, Max Verstappen was still the leader of the race, but Charles Leclerc was able to overtake number 11, Checo Perez. Honestly, after just 3 laps, I was losing heart because, with new tires, Charles Leclerc's gap to Max was gradually increasing up to +3.5. Our cars just didn’t have the same pace as the Redbulls. Leclerc’s gap continued to increase up to +4.170, while Carlos was shockingly 8-tenths slower than the leaders. What is this? Am I sleeping and this is a nightmare? The car looked promising during testing, and thinking about Charles time during qualifying, he was 1st in the “drivers sing hard tires” imaginary rank. On soft tires we should be faster, so why does it seem like we are running slower with soft than with hards? Where or what is the problem on the 2023 car? After around 20 minutes in the Bahrain GP, Carlos' team radio announced that degradation was starting to kick in.
During lap 12/57, the Ferrari pit wall decided on a double pit for both drivers. My heart caught up, but thankfully it all went smoothly.
After the pit, Perez was going fast, a pace +20 than Leclerc. Ferrari and Redbull opted for two completely opposite tire strategies. Which strategy would prevail (the cars’ differences excluded)?
Exchanging considerations with friends on Twitter we agreed that Charles Leclerc was going quicker on hards than Verstappen with softs. So, what is going on with this car? Did they build it in reverse?
However, at lap 18/57 this was the situation, with both Ferraris not capable to close the gap to the two Redbull drivers.
Everyone at this point of the race pitted at least once. Ferrari was facing degradation on hard tires lower than expected, but my happiness didn’t last long, since this was the case also for all other drivers.
At this point we were quite happy with the hard tires, we were fast on the straights but at +13 from Verstappen, nonetheless.
At lap 27/57 Mercedes did not want to risk degrading the tires and try to overtake the Ferraris but instead focus on tire management. This was kind of a relief, meaning that our guys didn’t have to stress the tires trying to defend the position against Mercedes and risking increasing the degradation.
We as Tifosi know how much we were stressed by and how much we disliked Ferrari strategies last year, that’s why my heart stopped when Charles Leclerc asked to change from Plan A to Plan B. After looking into it, the pit wall decided to continue with Plan A.
Shoutout to Charlie who decided to speak up. I’m proud of you Charles!
Anyway, we are now at lap 32/57 with Carlos Sainz back in the pit for hards. Congrats to our engineers because that pit was super quick.
After a bit, Charles' team radio declared that the rears started to drop a little bit, so at the next opportunity, he pitted again for hards.
Ferrari garage had now the quickest pits during the race at 2.3 seconds each.
At lap 34/57, RedBull was the only team with only one pit stop. Does this mean they have better tire management and so a better car? Apparently so (heavy sigh).
At some point during the race, Sainz complains about porpoising. Not a good sign if you ask me. Olivia Rodrigo would have said: Did you get (DTS) deja-vu?
Not long after, Alonso in the Aston Martin decided it was "Hammer Time" and started fighting with the King of "Hammer Time".
This was definitely good news for Carlos, who was asked to “try to hold on tires”. In the meantime, some other dramas occurred at the McLaren garage where Lando seemed to be pitting for like a decade.
Then everything happened. I could hear Carlo Vanzini from Sky Sports Italy saying out loud “problems, problems for Charles Leclerc” and then I saw his name fall down the graphic on my screen.
The car was slowing down and after a bit, it shut down completely.
At lap 42/57 the yellow flag and the VSC was deployed because a car stopped on track. And that car was OUR car.
In a matter of seconds, Charles Leclerc went from 2nd to last, and eventually out of the race.
We now had only one car to rely on and what came next also, was not so nice. Carlos Sainz was still bouncing a lot inside that car I thought that maybe Ferrari bought some car parts at the flea market.
Apparently, Leclerc’s car shut down due to an engine problem, I know we are only at the first race of 2023 but I can’t deal with another year of reliability issues.
The race was still on when an Italian Sky Sports journalist interviewed Charles Leclerc: “Redbull is just on another level, we had no race pace” … “We need to find a solution” he continued.
At the end of the race, T.P. Fred Vasseur said that they were expecting tire degradation, but reliability issues came as a shock to him as for the Tifosi. He was sure we could battle for 3rd place.
Driver number 55, Carlos Sainz stated that the tire problem needs to be solved because the heating of tires could have cost him the advantage over Hamilton. Sainz wasn’t able to defend his position in the end, Alonso and his Aston Martin were unstoppable.
After the race, Sky Sports “technical” commentator Marc Gene explained that hards on Ferrari had higher degradation than softs on RedBull and he couldn’t find a reason to explain why this happened.
Verstappen, Leclerc and Alonso had respectively +0.6, +0.7 and +0.5 due to deg from soft tires. But Leclerc had a +0.8 degradation with hards and with less fuel. This is clearly not a good sign for Ferrari.
Seems like one of the reasons why we have a lot of degradation is because our rear is a lot more unstable than on other cars, for example Aston Martin are slower on the straights, but they suffer less degrading due to more stable rear wings.
So guys, summing up this first Grand Prix:
A race to forget for McLaren fans since Piastri was out at lap 16/57, due to a complete shutdown during the pit stop. Lando Norris is probably still pitting somewhere in Bahrain.
Shoutout to Estie Bestie who collected penalties like my grandma collects points at the supermarket.
And lastly shoutout to Pierre Gasly who started last and finished in P9.
Congrats to Aston Martin and to Fernando Alonso for the podium. Congrats also to Lance Stroll for the brilliant race and the physical and mental strength he displayed.
And for what concern, Ferrari, they did not understand the assignment. I mean, okay breaking the Bahrain curse, but an engine failure was a bit excessive… a 2nd and 3rd place would have been enough.
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