258 laps at Yas Marina to round off the Scuderia’s season

The 2023 season has officially come to an end. Scuderia Ferrari wrapped it up with a day’s testing in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit. Driving duties fell to the two race drivers, who each spent time at the wheel of one of the SF-23s, while Robert Shwartzman had sole use of the other car all day as part of the Young Driver Test. Between the three of them they completed 258 laps: 123 for Robert, 69 for Carlos Sainz in the morning and 66 for Charles Leclerc in the afternoon.

The race drivers. Carlos was the first to hit the track, trying three tyre compounds: the Spaniard started off on the C2, before moving on to the C5 and finally the C3. His best time was a solid 1’24”769 on the C5, the softest compound and it was the quickest time up until the lunch break. In the afternoon, it was Charles’ turn, running the C5, C1 and C4, his best time being a 1’25”371.

Robert. Shwartzman did the most laps, on what was his third time this year behind the wheel of an SF-23, having previously driven it in free practice in Zandvoort and at Yas Marina last Friday. He ran three compounds, the C4, C3 and C5, his personal best time being a 1’25”050. However, he had to abort what would have been his quickest lap when Ayumu Iwasa in the AlphaTauri triggered a red flag. Overall, one SF-23 completed 125 laps and the other, 123, equivalent to two race distances each.

Robert Shwartzman #39

It was a busy day with a lot of running, during which we tested many things, completing a total of 123 laps. Both the team and I are happy with how it went and I really enjoyed driving a Formula 1 car over a full day again. We did some race runs that allowed us to check our pace with the tyre degradation and we definitely gathered valuable information. At the end of the day, we also did some performance runs. Unfortunately, one got interrupted by a red flag and the other one by traffic. The plan now is to go back to Maranello for some simulator work, help the engineers there before taking a holiday break after a long season, so as to return fresh next year, which I’m really looking forward to.