Ferrari director Laurent Mekies reveals the team's targets from pre-season testing in Bahrain

Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies has outlined the team's targets for pre-season testing in Bahrain. The French engineer claims the team hopes to see real-life proof of the model they have developed the car with all winter.

Mekies hopes that the team's tire, aerodynamic, and reliability models will be reflected by their 2023 challenger on track. He also hopes the new car, the SF23, performs as per their expectations from development.

The team is all set for the upcoming season as they hope to challenge for the title with both their drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. An important aspect of being able to mount a championship challenge is understanding the car in pre-season testing.

The Scuderia team suffered from poor reliability in the 2022 season, leading to frequent DNFs for both its drivers - resulting in a huge loss of championship points.

Speaking in a Q&A round for Ferrari, Laurent Mekies said of the team's expectations for pre-season testing:

"The truth is in the modern world in which we are, it's all about correlations and making sure the car is matching the model with which we have been working all winter. So it's true for the vehicle model, it's true for the tyre model. It's true, of course, for the aerodynamic model, so it's all about correlations. Does the car perform as we are expecting? this is very much the big part of the testing focus will be [on]."

Ferrari's 2023 F1 car has lost weight: Reports

As per reports, Ferrari's 2023 F1 car has lost weight, perhaps going even below the 796 kg limit. The team had a pacey car in 2022 but failed to sustain a championship challenge against Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Going below the 796 kg limit will allow the team to add ballast to the car to help improve its balance and performance, should they choose to do so. The Italian team struggled with tire degradation in 2022, leading to stellar performances on Saturdays but poor showings on Sundays.

Red Bull's RB18 was able to manage its tires a lot better than Italian F1-75, leading to frequent race wins for the Austrian team.

Sources suggest that Ferrari has developed a new lightweight chassis for 2023 which will help manage its tires and give it a better lap time overall. The success of the team's efforts, however, will not be known until the new car is fully assembled and finds its way to a weighing scale.

There are also reports that Red Bull have managed to create a chassis 3 kg lighter than the championship-winning RB18. Given the team's reduced wind tunnel testing time, however, it is unclear whether this new chassis will hold up to the rest in 2023.

With former drivers such as David Coulthard backing Ferrari in 2023, it will be interesting to see how the upcoming season develops.