The Story of 2023: Part One - A Difficult Start

We know the car wasn't up to speed at Bahrain in the 2023 season-opener. We struggled and it showed.

The race told us how much work the team would have to put in over the year to give Lewis and George a chance to contend in the races.

A P5 (Lewis) and P7 (George) finish was far from the result we wanted and changes to the W14 during the season wouldn't be ruled out by Toto.

"As a matter of fact, the gap is very big [to the other cars]," Toto said after the race. "And in order to catch up you need to make big steps, not the conventional ones by adding a few points [of downforce] every week, because everybody else will do that.

"We have lost a year in development. In order to have a steeper development curve, you just need to take these decisions."

Struggles and disappointments

The first third of the season was frustrating and disappointing and we knew we weren't giving our fans the performances on track that they deserved.

Azerbaijan and Miami Grands Prix brought us mediocre results and changes were needed if we were to succeed going forwards.

While we struggled, the Aston Martins looked strong in the early parts of the year, with Fernando Alonso's third-place finish in Miami his fourth podium in the first five races, but mistakes and car troubles were hampering Ferrari's progress.

Our zero-sidepod approach was something we needed to address and we looked to add upgrades to the car with the Emilia Romagna GP just round the corner.

Unfortunately, because of flooding in the region, the race at Imola was cancelled, so next up was Monaco and a new-look car.