It’s been 16 years since Ferrari last won a driver’s championship, and Charles Leclerc has declared the Scuderia’s 2023 challenger as the car to finally break the hoodoo.
The SF-23 was revealed at the team’s Maranello headquarters, before drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took it straight out on-track for a series of demonstration laps.
Leclerc left the third race of the 2022 season in Melbourne with a 34-point lead over George Russell, and a 46-point lead over eventual champion Max Verstappen.
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The talk at the time was Ferrari had nailed the massive regulation change, and the World Championship was all but theirs.
But what followed was a typical Ferrari collapse – a series of retirements through dodgy reliability – including two while leading grands prix – as well as several diabolical strategy calls.
Leclerc was lucky to eventually finish second in the series, having gone into the final race in Abu Dhabi level with Sergio Perez.
“The goal is to win. I am really looking forward to getting back in the car and trying to win that championship,” Leclerc said at the launch.
“Last year was a good step forward. We need to do just the same this year and hopefully get that championship.
“That is the target for the team and for me too, get more wins, be more consistent from the first race to the last race.”
But a small detail on the front wing of the car has tongues wagging.
Towards the end of last season, Mercedes introduced a new front wing that featured a series of support devices that doubled as aerodynamic veins to direct air.
The FIA swiftly banned the devices, stating they were “against the spirit” of the new regulations introduced for 2022 aimed at cleaning up air-flow off the back of the cars to allow better racing.
But in the off-season, the wording of the regulation was tweaked, meaning the once-banned veins may now be technically legal.
Former F1 designer Gary Anderson said he expected the FIA would no doubt have a good look at the new wing.
“This is something these regulations have strived to minimise so I would expect the FIA to be taking a close look at these vanes,” he wrote in a column for The Race.
“There is a question over the legality of the vanes … in how they join the third and fourth wing flaps.”
Mercedes will launch their 2023 car in the early hours of Thursday morning (AEDT), where it’s expected the front wing of the new car will once again feature similar devices.
Both Leclerc and teammate Sainz each briefly drove the new Ferrari after the launch in front of a group of die-hard Tifosi, in a move Sainz described as “high risk”.
The Monegasque won a coin toss and was given the chance to go first.
Sporting regulations determine teams can perform 15km of ‘demonstration running’ before strict testing regulations kick in.
The Fiorano circuit is a nudge under 3km long, meaning the five laps the car ran keep it just under the limit.
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