Ferrari SF-23: in Jeddah there is a new front wing

Translation:

Ferrari SF-23: there is a new front wing in Jeddah.

Ferrari wants to react to the disappointing Bahrain Grand Prix and start to show the true potential of the SF-23. The characteristics of the Jeddah circuit could enhance the efficiency shown by the Rossa, but it will be necessary to improve the management of porpoising and the understeer seen at Sahkir. On this front, Maranello has been working to anticipate some updates, in the hope of bringing the Ferrari SF-23's performance closer to that of the Red Bull RB19.
A disappointing first Grand Prix was followed by ten days of rumours, polemics and rumours but from tomorrow the track will do the talking and the Scuderia arrives in Jeddah to try and turn its season around. The objective declared at the start of the season is to fight for both world championships and that cannot change, however disappointing the performance of the Ferrari SF-23 in the first round of twenty-three, in Bahrain.

According to the Maranello team principal, the Ferrari SF-23 has a lot of potential. It needs to be able to extract it by working better with the setup, finding a balance that was never optimal in Bahrain. Although the Frenchman played it down, the work of the technical department has been forced on the SF-23 after the disappointing three days of testing.
A new front wing debuts in Jeddah to eradicate understeer.

At the Manama circuit, the Scuderia had to face several unexpected events. The most serious was certainly the retirement of Charles Leclerc due to reliability problems that cost him 10 penalty positions in Jeddah, only the latest in chronological order. What conditioned the performance was an exasperated understeer and the early start of the porpoising compared to the initial forecasts coming out of the Maranello instruments. These two conditions prevented the use of optimal set-ups tested in the simulator, forcing the team to make a compromise that penalised the mechanical setup, and not only that, directly on the track.

These drawbacks had already come to light during testing, with one Charles Leclerc making it clear that he was not fully comfortable with the front end of his SF-23. "I had to change my driving style a little bit, but let's say we are finding the way," Leclerc had said on the last day of testing. The important data analysis and simulator work allowed the strong Monegasque driver to find his way. This was demonstrated by the excellent qualifying and race, although the pace compared to Red Bull was very poor on Sunday.After seeing that the Ferrari SF-23, on track, was not showing the excellent performance of the Simulator, at Maranello they accelerated with the developments. Pre-test nothing was planned for this appointment, however, in order to allow for a better balance and optimisation of the setup, solving or at least limiting the problems experienced in Bahrain, a new front wing will debut in Jeddah.

In Jeddah there is also a single-section rear wing and it is fitted to both Ferrari SF-23s

In Bahrain, both in testing and at the race weekend, Ferrari's new rear wing was much discussed, but was not used later in the weekend. The Ferrari SF-23 driven by Charles Leclerc had in fact been fitted with a single-section rear wing on the last day of testing, after some delays in delivery, so too at the start of FP1, but with rather disappointing and unexpected results. During testing the DRS activation system broke, causing the wing to open unevenly, forcing the engineers to replace it, while during the first free practice session the wing support broke, which is why there was a lot of oscillation. "The new wing has a concept that is quite young for us. It's a development that is ongoing and that can take us a step further," Jock Clear had said in Bahrain.

"What little we have seen so far is positive anyway, so we will probably bring it back," Clear had stated. The new wing is in fact in Saudi Arabia and is currently fitted to both Ferrari SF-23s. "At the factory we did our own tests but then all the stiffnesses would have to mirror the real conditions. That's why we wanted to test it on the track, without the aim of using it in the race. Nowadays you have very little time for testing so we have to use Fridays to test some parts. We will go back to the factory and improve it further," the British engineer explained.

Remembering that the monopylon wing is a slightly more loaded version of the one used in Bahrain, with a more pronounced scoop. A solution therefore that aims to provide the rear of the SF-23 with more load, however, without penalising the efficiency work done during the winter to significantly increase top speeds compared to the F1-75.