F1 2024: Ferrari evaluates Red Bull level based on project 676

Ferrari rightly fears Red Bull. The first six words of the article reveal the idea that the historic Italian team has formed about the reigning Formula 1 world champion. Not being somewhat concerned about the performance of the RB20 would be foolish, agreed, but at the same time, nurturing excessive fears would be quite wrong. A condition that would lead to nothing good, as anxieties and apprehensions, especially at this delicate moment of the year, must make way for confidence in one’s capabilities.

Frederic Vasseur is strongly focused on the red team. The future is being planned in these hours. Several technical meetings will take place in the coming weeks in January, where technicians, drivers, and engineers will meet at Ferrari Racing Division, giving rise to various discussions. The goal is to take stock of project 676: the level of competitiveness, working setup, and the related update plan to be set for the early months of the 2024 racing campaign.

With the first internal meetings, Ferrari will “build” a preliminary idea of the competitive level reached by the new car. Although simulator feedback should always be taken with a grain of salt, the infinite plethora of data collected during the last season will still provide a basic idea of the performance achieved. Moreover, according to information gathered by the editorial team of the Italian website FUnoanalisitecnica, the Prancing Horse cautiously defines itself as optimistic.

In all this, keeping an eye on the competitors is a given, it couldn’t be otherwise. And so, Mercedes comes to mind, a team eager for a comeback and possessing all the means to return to the top as soon as possible. Not to forget McLaren, a rapidly growing team with every intention of re-establishing itself at the top as early as March. Furthermore, considering the winter exploits, adopting an underestimating attitude towards Aston Martin would be foolish.

Ferrari: Performance convergence doesn’t help Red Bull at all
Red Bull remains the favorite for the 2024 title. Eleven words that, in this case as well, convey the general opinion about the upcoming Formula 1 championship. A trend, implemented by the Milton Keynes team, truly overwhelming. A car capable of monopolizing the championship as never before, securing a staggering 21 wins out of 22 available races. A result that is unlikely to be repeated, words uttered by the very actors of this suffocating dominance.

The manager from France is of the same opinion. The Frenchman has almost always shown clear ideas throughout the championship. A real clean break with the smoky past, filled with the oft-repeated litany of “we need to understand.” A refrain repeated ad nauseam, on the verge of being sickening, aimed at buying time and hiding the real problems for which a real solution was always far from arriving. Vasseur, as mentioned, and his cautious optimism.

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The former Alfa Romeo may not be the most quoted engineer in Formula 1. However, in his time within the Circus, he has always shown a natural inclination for leadership, knowing how to manage the human resources at his disposal very well. Organized and straightforward, without frills in his reasoning: “Regulatory stability is an advantage for us at Ferrari,” this is his thought. A regulatory framework that, without undergoing significant changes, favors the so-called “performance convergence,” one of the fixed points in the mind of the Frenchman.

However, there is a downside. When the rules don’t change, and a team’s dominance is abominable, the possibility of plunging headlong into the new project ahead of the rest of the competitors emerges. A time advantage that the working group led by the brilliant mind of Adrian Newey will undoubtedly have known how to exploit. This does not mean that Red Bull will still be able to dominate, at least everyone hopes so. But it would still be imprudent not to consider such a scenario within the conjectures about next year.

Ultimately, another aspect that equals what has been said: unity of purpose. Wing cars don’t go on track by themselves. They are guided by human talents that compete in the order of milliseconds. The equation that gave rise to the astonishing successes of the Austrian team is largely due to the Max Verstappen-RB19 pair. Evidence? To mathematically secure the second place in the drivers’ standings, Sergio Perez needed took 21 races. A winning distinctive trait that Ferrari will adopt in the future, “shaping” the car and the team around the talent and skills of Charles Leclerc.