Charles Leclerc’s first podium with the SF-24 single-seater confirms Scuderia Ferrari as the second force in the start of the 2024 Formula 1 world championship, but over 50 laps of the 6.174-kilometre Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the red car has unfortunately shown that it does not have the pace to stay ahead of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull. Despite having a more loaded wing, the red car couldn’t get the tires up to temperature because it lacks the necessary aerodynamic load.
Red Bull leads with 87 points in the Constructors’ Championship, followed by Ferrari with 49, then McLaren with 28, and Mercedes with 26. The team standings after two races outline the realistic scenario of this start of the Formula 1 season’s.
The Jeddah circuit cools the expectations of Ferrari fans and those who are significantly behind the red team. In Bahrain, there was a strong feeling that Charles Leclerc, without the mysterious brake issues, would be able to stay ahead of Sergio Perez, who finished second in a comeback. However, Saudi Arabia has established that the two RB20 cars are not disputable, at least for now, as the Mexican played the role of a reliable rear guard to Max Verstappen, easily overtaking Charles Leclerc’s red car that started in front of him.
The Monegasque driver is skillful at putting the SF-24 on the front row during qualifying but then has to surrender to the pace that the SF-24 car allows him to maintain. Last year, Ferrari “ate up” the tires after a few laps, and this year it limited the tire wear, even going in the opposite direction, by struggling to bring the tires up to temperature and for a few laps suffering a situation that allowed the Red Bull RB20 cars to pull away.
Why does all this happen? In straightforward terms, the Ferrari car doesn’t transfer the necessary energy to the rear tires. Translated into more understandable language: the SF-24 lacks aerodynamic load. The car body doesn’t generate enough downforce, and the Maranello technicians are forced to use a more loaded rear wing to overcome the red car’s deficiency, even though the staff led by Fred Vasseur had decided for the very fast Jeddah circuit, like everyone else, on a less resistant profile than the one seen in the Bahrain weekend.
The Maranello team never used the new solution, not even in free practice, aiming to cover the shortcomings of ground effect with a loaded wing. The exuberant power unit 066/10 allowed Ferrari to limit the deficit generated by the increased drag on the straight, as the telemetry data showed that Charles Leclerc reached the same top speed as Sergio Perez in the speed trap: 330.3 km/h, although it is reasonable to think that the Honda engine mapping was not excessively aggressive, given the fact that that Red Bull once again had a clear pace advantage and could avoid using aggressive mappings.
Therefore, Ferrari hoped that, even with a more resistant car, it would manage to fight and keep Sergio Perez behind. The illusion vanished on lap 4 when the Mexican breezed past Charles Leclerc with the DRS open. Charles was still busy dealing with tires that weren’t in the right operating window. And the problem reappeared even with the hard compound after the early pit stop on lap 7 due to the safety car caused by Lance Stroll’s crash.
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The Maranello team, therefore, appeared in Saudi Arabia unprepared to face the characteristics of the Jeddah circuit. And if in Bahrain, there was a sense that a red car could act as a wedge between the two Red Bulls, on Saturday, it became clear to everyone that it was just a utopia. The SF-24 lacks the performance to close a gap that measures three-tenths in qualifying but, at certain moments of the race, reaches five to seven tenths.
The stunning performance of Oliver Bearman, an 18-year-old Englishman making his debut to replace the injured Carlos Sainz, credited the engineers of Enrico Cardile for making the red car “easy” to drive, if not too easy. The car’s foundation is good, solid, but not enough to challenge the RB20s. The right balance has not yet been found in the rear, and the SF-24 has shown a performance limit that can only be overcome with an aerodynamic update package and not through understanding the car in terms of setup.
Ferrari, therefore, must be brave in its choices: perhaps it could have taken a chance on the medium compound for the second stint (Yuki Tsunoda covered 41 laps with the yellow tyre, while Lando Norris 39), but the Maranello’s philosophical approach to technical and sporting choices was once again conservative. Too much. The fear of making mistakes does not lead to bold choices.
In Friday’s free practice session, a comparative run with the unloaded wing could have been done, just as we hope to see something new in Australia for the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 season. Otherwise, chasing the Red Bulls will become just a dream, while those who had the unloaded wing and were behind the red car (McLaren, Aston Martin, and Mercedes) could solve their setup problems to challenge the role of Ferrari as the second force on track.
