Ferrari bringing first in series of upgrades to Miami GP · RaceFans

Ferrari will begin a push to catch Red Bull by bringing the first in a series of upgrades to this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

The team scored its first podium finish of the season in Azerbaijan last week having brought few changes to its SF-23 over the opening races and focused instead on refining its set-up.

“We pushed a lot to do the podium so far, it’s a milestone into the season for us, and for myself,” said Frederic Vasseur, who took over as team principal in January.

“We have to build up the pace and the confidence of the team on this. It’s important also because we made the important choice in terms of technical approach over the last couple of weeks and it’s paying off. I think this is important for the confidence of the team.”

The team has fallen further away from the pace of reigning world champions Red Bull. However Vasseur said “it’s too early” to decide whether the team needs to make drastic changes to the design of its car.

The team intends to bring the first of its upgrades to this weekend’s race. “We will start to bring updates to the car from Miami and for the next couple of events,” said Vasseur.

“How the car will react to the updates this is quite [important]. The update is one thing but the fact [whether] that you are able to extract all the potential of the update is another one.”

The peculiarities of this run of races makes introducing upgrades tricky, said Vasseur. The teams only had an hour of practice in Baku due to the revised sprint race weekend format.

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After this race the teams head to Imola, where the Alternative Tyre Allocation will be used for the first time, which may disrupt their pre-race running. That race is followed by the unusual, extremely slow Monaco circuit where conducting any development work is difficult and the high chance of incurring damage makes teams unwilling to risk new parts.

“It’s quite difficult with this kind of format to introduce updates and to develop the car,” said Vasseur in Baku. “But it’s the same for everybody and it’s a part of the game.

“It’s true that we will have to consider this in the approach for the next couple of events. You will have Imola the [ATA], then Monaco is not the best place to develop the car, but we will bring small updates. I think this format is pushing the teams to bring small updates and not to bring packages.”

Ferrari’s updates since first race