It's been 16 years since Ferrari past won a driver's championship, and Charles Leclerc has declared the Scuderia's 2023 challenger arsenic the car to yet interruption the hoodoo.
The SF-23 was revealed astatine the team's Maranello headquarters, earlier drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc took it consecutive retired on-track for a bid of objection laps.
Leclerc near the 3rd contention of the 2022 play successful Melbourne with a 34-point pb implicit George Russell, and a 46-point pb implicit eventual champion Max Verstappen.
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The speech astatine the clip was Ferrari had nailed the monolithic regularisation change, and the World Championship was each but theirs.
But what followed was a emblematic Ferrari illness - a bid of retirements done dodgy reliability - including 2 portion starring grands prix - arsenic good arsenic respective diabolical strategy calls.
Leclerc was fortunate to yet decorativeness 2nd successful the series, having gone into the last contention successful Abu Dhabi level with Sergio Perez.
"The extremity is to win. I americium truly looking guardant to getting backmost successful the car and trying to triumph that championship," Leclerc said astatine the launch.
"Last twelvemonth was a bully measurement forward. We request to bash conscionable the aforesaid this twelvemonth and hopefully get that championship.
"That is the people for the squad and for maine too, get much wins, beryllium much accordant from the archetypal contention to the past race."
But a tiny item connected the beforehand helping of the car has tongues wagging.
Towards the extremity of past season, Mercedes introduced a caller beforehand helping that featured a bid of enactment devices that doubled arsenic aerodynamic veins to nonstop air.
The FIA swiftly banned the devices, stating they were "against the spirit" of the caller regulations introduced for 2022 aimed astatine cleaning up air-flow disconnected the backmost of the cars to let amended racing.
But successful the off-season, the wording of the regularisation was tweaked, meaning the once-banned veins whitethorn present beryllium technically legal.
Former F1 decorator Gary Anderson said helium expected the FIA would nary uncertainty person a bully look astatine the caller wing.
"This is thing these regulations person strived to minimise truthful I would expect the FIA to beryllium taking a adjacent look astatine these vanes," helium wrote successful a file for The Race.
"There is simply a question implicit the legality of the vanes ... successful however they articulation the 3rd and 4th helping flaps."
Mercedes volition motorboat their 2023 car successful the aboriginal hours of Thursday greeting (AEDT), wherever it's expected the beforehand helping of the caller car volition erstwhile again diagnostic akin devices.
Both Leclerc and teammate Sainz each concisely drove the caller Ferrari aft the motorboat successful beforehand of a radical of die-hard Tifosi, successful a determination Sainz described arsenic "high risk".
The Monegasque won a coin flip and was fixed the accidental to spell first.
Sporting regulations find teams tin execute 15km of 'demonstration running' earlier strict investigating regulations footwear in.
The Fiorano circuit is simply a nudge nether 3km long, meaning the 5 laps the car ran support it conscionable nether the limit.
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