All the excitement of Miami aside, the next venue is one of the most iconic on the Formula 1 calendar: we head to the stunning Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. And with the European portion of the season in full swing, there’s plenty to talk about ahead of the race at Imola…
1. The Mercedes upgrade
If you haven’t heard that Mercedes is bringing some new parts to Imola, you’ve avoided the news really well. Since the difficult start to the season in Bahrain, Mercedes have been talking about updates and trying to turn the season around, identifying and capitalizing on a new development path in recent months.
The first real fruits of this labor will be seen at Imola, where Toto Wolff said Mercedes will get a new body, floor and front suspension.
That’s a significant amount of new parts to be tested on Friday, with Wolff admitting it’s too big a discrepancy for the team to be able to do back-to-back testing of the old and new versions.
Considering Mercedes is the only team aside from Red Bull this season to have finished in the top two at a Grand Prix and after George Russell’s fourth place finish in Miami where he averaged just over 0.1 seconds per Lap behind Fernando Alonso’s pace, how competitive can Mercedes have become?
It’s a question that will perhaps concern Aston Martin staff more than most due to the threat from Mercedes, but Aston will still need to make improvements of their own as they try to close the gap on Red Bull and hand Fernando Alonso the best possible chance to end a winning streak that now stretches back more than a decade to the Spanish Grand Prix on May 12, 2013.
2. Ferrari strive for consistency (and they’re not alone)
While this weekend sees the first major Mercedes update, Ferrari have brought new parts with them from recent races – including a new floor in Miami – and will continue to do so as they search for a specific item. Not performance (although that’s what they’ll be looking for, too), but consistency.
Both the drivers and team principal Fred Vasseur have been vocal about the fact that the car is sometimes really fast, but sometimes inexplicably not. Just look at Baku, where Charles Leclerc twice put the Ferrari on pole position over the weekend but almost got caught by Alonso again in the race.
The problem became even more apparent in Miami when Leclerc said he’s having a hard time building confidence, as perhaps illustrated by his two crashes over the weekend.
“What we lack is the consistency of the car,” said Leclerc. “The car is… it doesn’t even go from corner to corner, it’s just in the same corner where I can have huge oversteer and then huge understeer. Our car is so badly affected by the wind…”
Ferrari aren’t the only ones wanting more consistency, however, as McLaren will also come to Imola with issues to resolve. In Azerbaijan, a major update to the floor brought the team closer to their goal of being with their starting car and they had a solid run as Lando Norris scored points. But both drivers retired in Q1 in Miami and were unable to progress in an accident-free race in what Team Principal Andrea Stella described as a “reality check”.
“We are very, very far away” – Leclerc is desperate after the Miami GP about the gap to Red Bull
3. Alpine wants to respond to the boss’s criticism
When companies like Ferrari and Mercedes try to fix problems, Alpine’s is more about conveying an answer to their CEO.
Laurent Rossi was negative about the team’s start to the season – putting particular pressure on the responsibilities of team boss Otmar Szafnauer – but on a weekend in Miami where Alpine scored double points for the second time this season.
Rossi’s disappointment appears to have come at least in part from missed opportunities, but Alpine has certainly had the pace on several occasions so far in 2023, threatening the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari in Saudi Arabia, Australia and Miami before ultimately failing.
Azerbaijan had a disappointing weekend with team and driver errors analyzing an updated car, but after a more solid showing at Miami there’s real hope for Alpine that they can back that up with more points and re-establish themselves in fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
4. The Red Bull Driver Battle
You didn’t think I’d skip that, did you? As impressive as Max Verstappen was as he bounced back from ninth place on the grid in Miami and won for the third time this season, even on a weekend when Sergio Perez admitted he hadn’t done his best all year, he slacked off Verstappen still work hard for victory.
Just 14 points separate the two team-mates traveling to Imola and it’s a place of this nature where Perez really needs to deliver, although he said his strong start to the season wasn’t due to his love of street circuits but to a higher level of Comfort in RB19.
READ MORE: Perez admits Verstappen’s Miami GP win was ‘well-deserved’ after finishing second
Perez is able to play with the car more than his predecessors and hopes to continue his form and challenge Verstappen again for victory.
Red Bull scored a one-two at Imola last year and will work to maintain their early-season lead to ensure there is another head-to-head battle between their two drivers this weekend.
5. An iconic stretch to kick off the triple header
It’s safe to assume there won’t be many fans in the stands this weekend with the same opinion as Red Bull above, as the Tifosi are out in large numbers to support Ferrari at one of their home rounds.
At a track that bears the name of Enzo Ferrari and his first son Dino, Scuderia fans regularly flock to the grandstands and various vantage points around the circuit to line up behind their team. Maranello is only an hour’s drive away.
But teams won’t have time to catch their breath and enjoy the moment too much as Imola is the opening race of the season’s first triple header.
Trips to Monaco and Barcelona follow as the paddock moves along the Mediterranean coast, offering the opportunity to land heavy blows in the various championship bouts within a short space of time.
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