Ferrari warn changing F1 car concept in-season would be a ‘mistake’ 

Ferrari were Red Bull’s closest challengers in 2022 and won several races but have endured a lacklustre start to the season.

Despite displaying promising one-lap pace and being the only team other than Red Bull to score a pole position so far this year, Ferrari’s competitiveness has fallen away over a race distance. 

Mercedes debuted their heavily-revised W14 at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix but Ferrari team principal Vasseur insisted the Italian outfit would not change their car concept mid-season. 

“As long as I’m convinced we can improve the current car, it would be a mistake during the season to change completely the target,” Vasseur said. 

“First for timeframe, because if you decide today to bring a completely different car during the season, I think it will bring us to October, or something like this.

“It won’t be quicker and I’m not sure that it’s the best solution to improve even on the mid-term view.

“We already have next year’s car in the windtunnel and we are working on the next project.

“To try to introduce a complete different car during the season, it’s quite critical at this stage of the season.”

Vasseur added: “It's not just about potential and package and upgrades. We also have to operate the car in a better window.

“The first target for us is not just to put downforce on the car. It is to have the car a bit more consistent.

“On top of the update, we have big room for improvement with the current car in terms of performance.” 

Vasseur also suggested Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been exaggerating their complaints about the SF-23 being tricky-to-drive. 

“You have always got to stay calm. If the car was so difficult to drive, I can't imagine that we could be 0.1s off Verstappen,” he said. 

“Sometimes you are jumping on the drivers five minutes after qualifying.

“I can understand perfectly their frustration but the comments that they are making half an hour after are a bit different.

“If we are suffering on something, it is consistency over the lap, over the race or from corner to corner. It's where we have to improve but mainly for the race. Ans we are working on it.

“I think we made a decent step forward but it's true that Miami, we were a bit inconsistent. 

“But we are performing on something. The first stint of Carlos [in Monaco] was a very good one.

“It means that we have to understand this and come back stronger. But it's not that we are out of the pace.”