Whatever happened in 2022 is forgotten as we embark on the latest chapter in F1. Even the 10 teams go into the season with a clean slate and the hopes and ambitions to do one better than they did last year. For Ferrari, that objective was to win the championship after a decade and a half of going winless. What plagued the team last year was an internal mess of mistakes and a fast yet unreliable SF-75. At the start of the year, the team were buoyant with expectations as they admittedly made progress on the power unit side, but come Bahrain 2023, the gremlins of the past seem to have clung on to the team from Maranello.

Charles Leclerc was already having a tough weekend. As per reports, the Monegasque and his teammate Carlos Sainz were at least a second off of the pace as compared to Red Bull. But 40 laps into the 57-lap Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc’s works Ferrari power unit called it quits. The 25-year-old was forced to retire from the very first race of the year.

Helmut Marko rubbishes Ferrari’s title hopes

Even Sainz missed out on a podium finish. And if that wasn’t enough, their supposed chief rivals didn’t waste even a second to compound their misery.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was quoted by Motorsport.com as saying, “Who will be our opponents this year? After one race it’s hard to say. There are many opponents. I also think Mercedes will improve over the course of the season,” when asked about the competition [translated via Google Translate]. But what did he think about Ferrari?

“Ferrari has the more powerful engine, but what’s the point of having the more powerful engine if isn’t it reliable? But yes, the top speed is what it is and we have to deal with that.”

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Red Bull found themselves in a similar predicament exactly a year ago. So, is there still hope for the tifosi?

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Is it time to ring the crisis bells at Ferrari?

Last year, at the opening race of the season, the Milton-Keynes-based outfit suffered a fate similar to that of Ferrari. The Bulls endured a double DNF as the Scuderia secured a 1-2 finish. Last week, Red Bull were the one’s with a 1-2 finish, as Leclerc bowed out of the race with a maimed engine.

Superstition plays a crucial role in this sport. Even though it is too early to say anything in the season right now, if history were to repeat itself, as it tends to do in the paddock, the Bahrain curse along with the incidents of last year may still be of some solace to the fans of the famous red team.

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Can Ferrari turn this around and bounce back with a strong performance in Saudi Arabia?