The major regulation changes in 2022 presented teams with a massive opportunity to reinvent themselves last year, as every team was forced to go back to the drawing board and get creative.
It initially looked like Ferrari had mastered the rule changes as they came flying out of the blocks in Bahrain with clearly the fastest car on the grid.
A stunning one-two finish at the season opener in the Middle East, Ferrari and Charles Leclerc continued to build up a healthy lead in both championships while Red Bull and Mercedes struggled.
Red Bull eventually managed to reduce the weight of the RB-18 and capitalised on strategic blunders and reliability issues that were hurting Ferrari to do the double in the first year of F1’s new era.
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Mattia Binotto paid for the Scuderia’s shortcomings with his job, as the team became a laughing stock for their regular strategic howlers that were costing both of their driver the chance at regular race wins.
Fred Vasseur has come in from Alfa Romeo to become the new team principal of Ferrari and while things appear to be on the up for the Scuderia, Carlos Sainz has been hesitant to predict how his team might fare this year.
“Of course I have spoken with Fred,” Sainz told Sky Italia.
“And yes, I’ve been following progress with the new car for several months, but I won’t say a word about the car until I see the others on the track.”
Ferrari will reveal their unnamed 2023 challenger on February 14th, a day before Mercedes unveil the W14, which they fired up for the first time just days before the Christmas factory shutdown.
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The Scuderia have been handed a golden opportunity to topple Red Bull’s dominance in 2023, as the energy drink giants will be significantly held back by their lack of wind tunnel testing time.
The team have had ten percent of their testing time taken away as punishment for breaching the 2021 cost cap, something they were found guilty of late last year.
On a personal note, Sainz will be hoping to build on a promising 2022, where he picked up his first win in Formula 1 and looked more than capable of matching Charles Leclerc by the end of the season.