Red Bull's Strength Identified By Ferrari's Performance Engineer

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 at 03:00

Scuderia Ferrari F1 performance engineer Jock Clear identified what makes Red Bull better compared to other teams on the grid in 2023.

With the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix approaching this week, all the teams are already in full preparation mode, analyzing track data and running simulations with their drivers.

The Las Vegas Strip Circuit consists mainly of long straights and a few low-speed corners, indicating it might be more suitable for lower-downforce setups. Jock Clear is quite brave with predictions telling the media ahead of the grand prix:

"Las Vegas is going to be a good one. All our indications are that it is going to be a low downforce circuit, and as such, we are confident that we can be competitive there, but [we still have] a tricky car."

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Ferrari has, in general, performed well on lower downforce circuits like Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. On the other hand, the performance engineer recognizes the Ferrari's problem:

"Let's not beat around the bush, it comes in and out of the window quite quickly, and the struggle for us has been to understand why that is."

Clear is confident Ferrari understands their car at this point of the year and revealed what the main focus is for the Ferrari team in terms of car development for the 2024 season.

"I think we understand that most of it might be in the DNA of the car, so for next year, we are focusing on making it a much more benign car, one that doesn't have such a narrow operating window."

In general, Ferrari has not struggled with performance. Charles Leclerc showed in the last few qualifications the car can be fast when you push it for one lap, but the bigger problem comes with longer distances.

Ferrari has been one of the worst teams regarding tire management during the race. Clear explains the problem and adds this is exactly what differentiates Red Bull:

"In a race, you can't operate in a narrow window because the race is long, temperatures change, the tires, and you need a bit of a broader operating window to have a really good race. That is where Red Bull's strength is - their operating window is very wide."