F1 Vasseur towards Suzuka: “Ferrari wants big points”

The Cavallino team principal and the next race: “We can verify our competitiveness on the fast corners: we want to confirm ourselves on a beautiful and difficult track to aim for second place in the Constructors’ Championship”

Having archived the success of Singapore, with the exciting victory of Carlos Sainz and the 4th place of Charles Leclerc, Ferrari already has the lead in Suzuka, where the Japanese GP will take place over the weekend (timetables here), the sixteenth round of the 2023 calendar. The Cavallino arrives with the wind in its sails and Team Principal Frederic Vasseur explains its expectations on the eve.

those fast corners

“We immediately put the Singapore GP on the back burner to focus on the Japanese one, one of the most fascinating races of the season for teams and drivers – Vasseur’s words -. The Suzuka track is completely different from those of Monza and Marina Bay and we will therefore have the opportunity to verify the competitiveness of the SF-23 even on fast bends with a medium-low load aerodynamic set-up”.

second place

With Red Bull unstoppable in the World Championship at 597 points, Ferrari (265 points) is aiming for the place of honor currently occupied by Mercedes (289) and Vasseur says it clearly: “We will face the weekend with the same approach as the last races, that which has allowed us to further improve in terms of the execution of operations on the track. We hope to bring home new important points in the fight for second place in the constructors’ classification.”

suzuka explained by andrea landi

A description of Suzuka’s difficulties is given by Andrea Landi, Ferrari’s ‘Head oh Vehicle Dynamics’: “Suzuka has a very large variety of corners, from the slowest to the high-speed ones, with straights that impose a rather low level of downforce which makes the car more difficult to drive in corners where a higher aerodynamic load helps stability. Fast corners present a demanding challenge, the wind can be a disturbance and the tires are subjected to a lot of stress, with a degradation of very accentuated performance in race conditions. The tires will need to be managed: you give up a bit of performance in a single lap to reduce the average degradation over the period of use and thus have a faster stint.”



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