After his first few weeks at Ferrari, Vasseur also offered a positive outlook, saying that based on what he had observed up to that point, the Scuderia has "everything" they need to succeed.
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Ferrari unveiled their newest rival, the SF-23, during a special Valentine’s Day presentation from the team’s Maranello headquarters, keeping the Formula One launch season moving quickly. After McLaren and Aston Martin unveiled their 2023 models on Monday, it was Ferrari’s turn to unveil their model, which unsurprisingly features yet another red-dominated livery design. Prior to receiving its official name of SF-23, Ferrari’s new vehicle was known as Project 675. This name continues the naming scheme the company started using in 2015. New Team Principal Frederic Vasseur, who joined Ferrari from Alfa Romeo over the winter and began working in early January as the replacement for Mattia Binotto, was on hand to oversee the launch proceedings.
Vasseur will be focusing on fixing the issues that derailed Ferrari’s hopes of defeating rival Red Bull to the championship in 2022. Unreliability, tactical missteps, and driver errors all played a part in their demise. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, Ferrari’s driver duo, will remain together for a third season despite changes at the team’s top, with Leclerc recently remarking that he feels “more mature” in the wake of his and the team’s recent failures. After his first few weeks at Ferrari, Vasseur also offered a positive outlook, saying that based on what he had observed up to that point, the Scuderia has “everything” they need to succeed.
“It’s always emotional for a team to do the launch. My contribution is very small on this one, but I can perfectly feel the work done on the car,” Vasseur said. “Now it will be a new journey for the project, because the car will move to the race team. It’s a great feeling; when you are back on track, it’s like when you are back at school. I can feel that everybody is very proud of the job done and this feeling is very important for the motivation of everybody and for the season. It will be a quite long season, but the motivation is there and it’s crucial in terms of performance.”
Ferrari last won a Formula One world championship in 2008 when they won the constructors’ championship. Kimi Raikkonen won the drivers’ championship for Ferrari the season before. The team is currently testing the SF-23 at Fiorano before leaving for Bahrain to conduct preseason testing from February 23 to 25, with the first race taking place a week later.
During Charles Leclerc’s debut in the SF-23, which was streamed live around the globe, the Monegasque driver completed a few laps in the Scuderia’s new challenger before waving to the crowd and pulling in to provide feedback. “It feels good; I mean, the first kilometres with this new project after doing so many kilometres on the simulator, it feels special, so everything went smoothly,” said Leclerc. “Obviously with two laps, it’s difficult to go into details – but I gave my feedback once I was in the car there with the engineers to get the first feeling. The car was running well, smooth, everything went really well.”
