Ferrari will introduce “some small updates” to its car at this weekend’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
The Scuderia sits fourth in the constructors’ championship after two rounds with a best result of fourth.
That came courtesy of Carlos Sainz in Bahrain, a race that saw team-mate Charles Leclerc retire with an electrical issue.
The Monegasque took a grid penalty in Saudi Arabia last time out after a Control Electronics change on his car.
Leclerc was seventh to the flag in Jeddah, one spot behind Sainz.
The pair trailed both Mercedes, Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, and the dominant Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and race winner Sergio Perez.
Team boss Fred Vasseur pointed to issues managing the hard compound tyres as the missing link in Saudi Arabia.
It had similarly been an issue in Bahrain, leaving Sainz powerless to defend against Alonso in the latter part of the race.
Ferrari will introduce updates to the SF-23 this weekend, though Vasseur is not expecting a golden bullet.
“We’ll have some small upgrades coming in [this] week in Australia,” he said.
“But it’s honestly, again, I don’t think that it’s [lack of pace on the hard tyres] coming from the potential.
“The main issue we have today is to be always, all over the weekend, to be at our maximum.
“But it’s not the case – we are not able to extract 100 percent of the car in every single session.
“We have to be focused on this before we think about updating.”
Vasseur is also mindful of his team’s rivals developing their cars.
“I think every single team of the grid, we are bringing updates every single weekend,” he noted.
“We have the declaration to the FIA on the on the Thursday morning and you can see that every single team’s is bringing updates.
“We will continue to do it and it’s not because that we are not performing, or we are performing, that will change the plan.”
The parts set to debut this weekend were in production over the course of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
F1 hits track in Melbourne on Friday with two practice sessions, the first beginning at 12:30 AEDT.
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