Scuderia Ferrari achieved a small masterpiece in the 15th Grand Prix of the 2024 Formula 1 season. Considering the unfavorable starting positions and the difficulties encountered throughout the weekend, the performance of the Maranello team, especially with the Hard tires, was excellent. Thanks to a well-timed pit strategy, Charles Leclerc reached the podium after 48 laps on hard tires. He also managed to keep Oscar Piastri behind, despite the fact that the Australian driver had a faster car and fresher tires. Carlos Sainz’s recovery from tenth position was also good. The Spaniard lapped only 2 tenths slower than the winner in the final part of the Dutch Grand Prix.
Lando Norris dominated at the 4.259-kilometre Circuit Zandvoort, confirming the strength of the MCL38 in race pace, as had already been evident on Friday. Max Verstappen suffered from what he had inflicted on his opponents in the Netherlands in previous seasons. After a great start, the overtaking by Lando Norris confirmed the lack of pace seen in free practice. The RB20 seems to have stabilized at its early-season performance, without progressing with updates as McLaren has. The world champion finished the race over 22 seconds behind Lando Norris, who set the fastest lap on the final lap.
The Dutch Grand Prix was decided by a one-stop strategy, as Pirelli had predicted. During the first stint, the Dutchman and Lando Norris maintained a pace that was 3 and 5 tenths faster, respectively, compared to George Russell in third place. After increasing the gap with the world champion, the McLaren driver closed in on the Dutchman after the eighth lap. Max Verstappen began to struggle after the 15th lap, complaining over the radio about the lack of grip and rotation at turn 10. This allowed Norris to overtake and gain 6 seconds on Verstappen in just 10 laps.
Taking advantage of this difference in pace, the McLaren driver pulled away from Verstappen by an average of three-tenths in the first stint and was the only one able to significantly lower lap times, showing negative degradation. The two Ferrari drivers, on the other hand, showed a race pace that differed by 0.13 seconds in favor of Charles Leclerc, who was able to capitalize on a better starting position. The Monegasque driver also managed to match Oscar Piastri’s pace in the second half of the stint, repeatedly attempting to attack the McLaren driver.
Analyzing the telemetry data we can see that Ferrari was able to exploit a lower downforce setup, excelling in top speed on the straights. The main difficulties, however, arose during corner entry, where the two SF-24 cars lost ground to Lando Norris’s McLaren. The Briton also excelled on the exit of turn 10, where the excellent traction of his MCL38 allowed him to gain valuable time on Max Verstappen. Understeer slowed down the world champion on corner exit and consequently on the following straight.
Between turns 10 and 11, the Dutchman was losing an average of about two-tenths per lap to Lando Norris, a significant gap. Moreover, it should be noted that the problem during corner entry suffered by Max Verstappen was a result of the world champion pushing too hard. Max was the best in almost all the braking zones during the first stint, pushing his RB20 beyond its limits to try and optimize handling. However, this was not enough because the McLaren was simply too fast.
In the second part of the Dutch Grand Prix, all the top drivers used the hard compound, completing the Medium-Hard strategy. Charles Leclerc, the first to pit, completed the most laps on the white-ringed Pirellis, making the most of a well-executed strategy by Ferrari, which allowed him to secure an unexpected podium. The main issues for the Monegasque driver in keeping Piastri behind came from managing oversteer in turns 1 and 10. His race engineer, Bryan Bozzi, repeatedly asked the Ferrari driver to change his approach to turns 8-9 to improve stability in turn 10.
Carlos Sainz also confirmed Ferrari’s excellent drivability on hard tires, showing a pace even faster than his Maranello teammate’s, losing on average only 2 tenths to Lando Norris. As for tire wear, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, along with George Russell, were the only ones to consistently improve their performance lap after lap, thanks to a lighter car. Lando Norris dominated the second stint, with a pace 4 tenths faster than Max Verstappen’s. The data related to degradation shows almost no wear for the winner.
Piastri, on the other hand, had a more complicated race compared to his teammate. Despite having the faster car, Oscar was largely penalized by a delayed pit stop. As a result, the Australian didn’t have the chance to overtake Charles Leclerc and chase after Verstappen. The telemetry from the second stint shows that, despite having the opportunity to open the drag reduction system and take advantage of Charles Leclerc’s slipstream, the MCL38 gained only 1 kilometer per hour on the SF-24. This was insufficient to attempt an overtake on a Ferrari set up to be very fast at the end of the straight.
The second part of the race was very difficult for Mercedes. The Brackley team was completely unable to make the hard tires work effectively. Despite relatively low degradation, the average pace of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was over half a second slower than that of the winner, Lando Norris. The lack of pace and the gap behind the seven-time Formula 1 world champion after lap 49 also “forced” Mercedes to make a second stop to mount the soft tires.
For the historic Ferrari team, arriving at the Monza circuit for the Italian Grand Prix with a podium obtained on a track that has historically been difficult represents a great confidence boost for the entire Maranello team. Additionally, a specific aerodynamic update package could arrive to optimize the SF-24 car, which, on paper, could bring Ferrari closer to the performance of the teams currently ahead. All in all, the Maranello technicians were right to choose a lower downforce setup at Zandvoort, allowing the drivers to work through the corners but defend and attack at the end of the straight.
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