The Ferrari chassis technical director takes stock of the situation before the Australian GP: the Italian aerodynamicist is satisfied with the work done during the winter, but is aware that there is a gap to fill with Red Bull. Enrico Cardile believes in the development work on the red car in the hope of “regaining ground against those currently occupying the top positions”.
Ferrari faces the farthest journey, to Australia, with the intention of extracting the maximum potential from the SF-24. Enrico Cardile, chassis technical director, declares himself moderately satisfied with the behavior of the red car before Melbourne, second only to the elusive Red Bull.
The 49-year-old engineer from Italy doesn’t beat around the bush: he admits that project goals have been achieved, but Max Verstappen’s RB20 is still out of reach. In short, the car is off to a good start but needs developments that are being studied in the wind tunnel to improve two aspects: tire management and the balance between qualifying runs and race stints.
After two GPs, what are you most satisfied with about the SF-24?
“With the two podium finishes, we can say we’re satisfied with the improvement gradient that the SF-24 shows compared to the previous car. Both tests and the first races have given us positive confirmations regarding the development path we outlined last year. Obviously, we can’t be satisfied with the two third places: Red Bull is still faster than us, and although our performance has been better than that of other top teams so far, it’s still not enough for us. There is still a lot of work to be done!”
Have you already identified the areas where there is room for development of the car?
“The first events confirmed a good correlation of our simulation tools, which is certainly positive. In short, we had no surprises: the limitations we encountered in the factory during the winter were confirmed on the track.”
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“Today we can say we have a fairly clear picture of the car’s weaknesses, starting from tire management and balance. Formula 1 is based on continuous improvement and planning: the first events confirmed what the development direction to pursue is, and also the priorities we set for ourselves. So, the focus in the company is to quickly find performance in the wind tunnel and work hard to bring updates to the track as soon as possible, meanwhile, exploiting all the potential that our car can have.”
Are the values shown to us by the track what you expected?
“Before the start of the first hour of free practice, it’s always difficult to have realistic expectations because each team is only aware of its own work, and it’s not possible to know the true values on the field. That said, we are only at the beginning of a very long season, and a good pace of improvement of the car will be crucial.”
“Last year showed us how the values on the field can change, in both directions. We ourselves started as the fourth force, then we recovered and finished the championship fighting for second place. So for the next few months, our only goal is to regain ground against those currently occupying the top positions.”
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