Ferrari approaches the third free practice session for the 14th round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship with a certain calmness. Although the Italian team knows it has no chance of fighting for pole position, the goal is to optimize the setup to further enhance the performance of the SF-24. Max Verstappen’s penalty, Sergio Perez’s technical shortcomings, and a Mercedes that is not particularly on form make the second row not an impossible dream. However, to achieve this, as mentioned, the Prancing Horse must necessarily address some setup issues.
Firstly, Ferrari needs to maximize traction phases, especially in the third sector, the part of the track where, exiting turn 14, the long high-speed stretch leading to the final chicane begins. In the third sector, the car has suffered a gap of over three-tenths of a second, despite having a very low-downforce configuration. The reason is simple: the acceleration phase exiting turn 14 is not optimal, and the delay in applying throttle extends throughout the straight. Additionally, the hybrid energy has not been properly managed, resulting in a noticeable deficit in this section.
Traction also needs to improve when exiting turns 18-19, the left-right combination leading onto the short starting straight. There’s also the bouncing issue, which lowers the performance of the Italian F1 car in S2, especially between turns 10 and 11. The floor hits the reference plane, slowing the car. There are possibilities to do better through a compromise that can optimize the chosen aerodynamics, which is aggressive and risky in some respects. This is the target for the last free practice session about to take place in the splendid setting nestled among the Ardennes woods.
F1, Ferrari with Charles Leclerc Fails to Activate Intermediate Tires
The drivers get into their cars. As always, beforehand, the mechanics have carried out the usual checks on the cars. This involves tests to ensure everything is functioning: power unit, transmission, braking system, and hybrid system. The weather conditions have radically changed. It is raining, the track is wet, and the situation is not the most “pleasant” for the drivers, as they will have to test the cars without having the same references as yesterday. This is the situation at the start of the session: 18.5°C air temperature, 22.3°C track temperature. Humidity at 89%, wind speed at 1.9 km/h blowing from the southeast.
Ferrari had planned to test the cars after some changes made in the morning. The simulator study suggested one step less stiffness in the suspensions, necessary to increase the car’s traction and fix the third sector, a part of the circuit where the references were not good enough. After 10 minutes of the session, although Red Bull, McLaren, and Mercedes are on track, the same cannot be said for the Italian cars, which are still in the garage. A minute later, Charles Leclerc hits the track with intermediate tires.
The Monegasque driver tries to do what he can, even though at the moment, given the condition of the track, full wet tires would be needed in several sections due to the large amount of water on the reference plane. This is communicated to Charles, who instead would like to continue with the green-banded Pirellis, as long as he is not the only one on track. One lap later, Charles Leclerc raises the white flag, realizing that the references that can be obtained at this moment are not very relevant.
After 40 minutes, the situation does not improve at all. The only “interesting” thing, if we can call it that, is that Lance Stroll’s crash into the barriers after losing his car exiting Eau Rouge had no physical consequences for the Canadian driver. Even the AMR24 is not significantly damaged, apparently. Otherwise, the track is too wet and therefore dangerous. There is no advantage, and for this reason, no team has given their drivers the green light. Five minutes before the session ends, the drivers get back into their cars.
They will likely do a couple of laps, conducting various start tests to test the system on the wet asphalt. In these cases, usually, the clutch release occurs in second gear to limit the inevitable wheel spin due to the poor grip of the asphalt. Carlos Sainz hits the track with full wet tires. The Spaniard goes wide in the second sector, hits the gravel, but fortunately manages to avoid contact with the barriers. Ferrari race engineer Riccardo Adami still requests a test: to use Engine 1 mode in S3 to check the car’s performance on the long straight.
The final free practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix ends with very few laps completed, mostly useless. Finally, we reiterate the point about Ferrari. The team needed to test some setup changes, a highly necessary move to understand if the modifications could provide the expected improvements to the SF-24’s performance. This is a big problem because the SF-24 will enter the qualifying session without the expected references, which is not reassuring for qualifying: Charles Leclerc said he couldn’t hit the window with the intermediates…
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