The 2024 Formula 1 season has started and after two rounds there is already a clear picture of the on-track hierarchy. Even the Ferrari SF-24 car must chase its opponents, a dynamic that unfortunately has been present for 16 long years. A condition no longer digestible by the Ferrari top management, which one year ago, at the orders of Ferrari executive chairman John Elkann, decided to embark on a different path. An imperative journey to bring the historic Italian team back to competitiveness and the top of Formula 1. The detractors of the Maranello team, which we all now are numerous and often disguised as pseudo-journalists who have for many years enjoyed pointing fingers without actually analyzing the difficulties, try to discourage public opinion regarding the long-awaited and necessary resurrection of the Prancing Horse.
But if history teaches us anything, even in Formula 1, perhaps we should avoid downplaying the work of a team that is making great efforts, especially when, given the data collected in these first two rounds of the new championship, the improvements are evident to all. It is enough to observe the performance of the Italian cars since last winter to understand how the SF-23 and the SF-24 have narrowed the gap against the mighty Red Bull. Is it enough? Certainly not. Can we argue that Ferrari will achieve its goal? Not yet.
However, failing to praise or at least acknowledge the team’s merits and instead denigrating, defining as useless or almost useless the measures taken by the Maranello team is part of a narrow-minded and evidently biased view.
Clearly stated in today’s article introduction, let’s reason about some recent comments from Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque has recently expressed his thoughts on the margins of the first two races of the 2024 Formula 1 season. We know well that the Ferrari driver is not capable of hiding his unease. When things go wrong, in addition to clearly reading the discomfort on his face, Charles Leclerc has always expressed his thoughts without too many frills. After all, being a party involved, dedicating his career to pushing the red car to the top, what sense would it make to lie or hide things?
For this reason, he should be listened to carefully because, unlike many of his colleagues, he says what he thinks and sees. There is nothing wrong with the SF-24 car, and its position compared to the 2023 championship is decidedly better. The new car obeys the drivers, does what Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ask of it. It’s an excellent starting point unlike Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin, for example, which before validating an update package must consider additional aspects to avoid embarking once again on the wrong development path.
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Ferrari: the peculiarities of the SF-24 offer margins for effective improvement
The last sentence of the previous paragraph is emblematic. Scuderia Ferrari itself has often fallen into this trap disguised as a “simulation field.” A hypothetical scenario produced by computers that has not found confirmation on the track. Mercedes has struggled with this headache for more than two seasons, and as anticipated yesterday through a dedicated article, the Brackley team is seriously considering delaying the already planned updates.
Essentially, this is done to avoid going on a wrong path and in a wrong development direction that would waste time and money. Resources are limited in the era of budget cap and therefore must be invested and used with skill. McLaren shares the same opinion. This is why team principal Andrea Stella has expressed the team’s opinion on updates, pointing out that it is better to be sure and not be in a hurry when producing new parts to improve the car. Only in this way will the upgrade be factual. A thought summarized with concise precision that finds confirmation in the tremendous step taken last year during the summer, transforming the MCL60 into a car capable of expressing insane performance especially compared to the months before.
There is a different situation for Aston Martin, which by rushing has lost the correct working point of the AMR23. A harmful context from which they have not been able to free themselves. A scenario that to some extent has erased the good work done in the first part of the 2023 Formula 1 championship, when the team led on track by Fernando Alonso was able to earn the status of second fastest car on track, only to gradually lose it and become the fourth of fifth as the season progressed, with Aston Martin undergoing a slow and progressive unexpected descent. Considering these elements, we must evaluate as quite encouraging the current status of Ferrari because finally, after a year and a half of “understanding,” it seems really that the “foundations” of the SF-24 are solid and ready to support the first evolutionary step.
For this reason, Charles Leclerc has so much confidence regarding the technical front. And we’re not talking about hopes thrown to the wind, but rather convictions based on concrete, palpable, tangible facts. The same reasoning applies to the “human structure” that is gradually taking shape behind him because the arrival of several technicians combined with further “human additions” of value who are about to enter the headquarters of the Maranello team, corresponds neither to fantasy nor to media communication strategy.
Consequently, the Monegasque driver casually states that the development pace will be better than last year. Ultimately, a pessimistic thought must still be present. Yes, because to make a mistake is human, and Ferrari, in this respect, has repeatedly shown itself to be a professor in this discipline. This is to emphasize that error is just around the corner, and falling into an unproductive development direction can still happen. However, a clear difference emerges compared to the recent past: with the base of the SF-24 single-seater, improvement is possible, whereas with that of last year’s Formula 1 car, it was not at all possible. And it was finally time for this to happen, not to be misunderstood.
Scuderia Ferrari aims to approach Red Bull, not to beat it. This is the realistic goal because, unlike Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin, the Milton Keynes team always knows how to move. For this reason, they have dominated the scene since the current regulatory body set foot in Formula 1 back in 2022 and for the same reason, the cars of all competitors increasingly resemble the works produced by the working group led by Adrian Newey. A technician who, from the first glance at the wing car projects, has been able to understand and identify the best technical solutions that regulate the aerodynamic downforce / efficiency equation.
Source: Alessandro Arcari for FUnoanalisitecnica
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