F1, SF-24: Ferrari tested but dismissed Red Bull-style cooling inlets

The Scuderia Ferrari one-two finish at the 5.278-kilometre Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne last Sunday crowns a great effort put in by Head of Ferrari Aerodynamics Department Enrico Cardile and his team of technicians. Throughout the winter, we have often emphasized the calm optimism surrounding the excellence of project 676, the Maranello team’s car for the 2024 Formula 1 championship.

The result and performance in the Australian Grand Prix were a show of strength for the Scuderia, regardless of the fact that it was also aided by a Max Verstappen immediately out of contention due to brake disk problems in the early stages of the race. But then again, that’s what was expected from the Scuderia this year: to be the second force on its own, causing a little bit more trouble for Red Bull at certain tracks, in order to capitalize on any possible missteps by the Milton Keynes-based team. It’s a factor that Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur himself highlighted after the Australian Grand Prix, pointing out that the weekend in Melbourne was a great test because if the Maranello team manage to put everything together, they can put a little more pressure on Red Bull. And it’s when they’re under pressure that they can make mistakes, which means the team has to continue in this direction.

Red Bull-style cooling inlets tested and dismissed

The victory in Melbourne is also a boost for the men working in Maranello. Getting back to winning ways and being closer to Red Bull was the first target to achieve in this start of the 2024 Formula 1 season it it seems to be fully accomplished, at least for now. The Italian side is heading towards the first phase of the championship, which will include the first significant developments and updates for the SF-24 single-seater. Even before the start of the season, we highlighted that a “more extreme SF-24” was in the pipeline compared to the car that raced at the Bahrain International Circuit, as the Ferrari team boss confirmed that the car is much more drivable than last year. It’s easier for the drivers, but also for Ferrari to develop.

However, the work in the Computational Fluid Dynamics and wind tunnel hasn’t only focused on an evolved aerodynamic package based on the 1.0 version. For the home Grand Prix at the Imola circuit, a significantly evolved SF-24 is expected compared to the base version that started the 2024 Formula 1 season. Part of this package, as previously hinted, will include narrower cooling inlets. It’s a fairly logical evolution path, already taken by the Red Bull RB19 last year. However, the work done within the walls of Maranello has seen a wind tunnel model of the SF-24 with “inverted inlets” – with the upper lip advanced like on the RB20.

We noticed how on this year’s Red Bull there has been work done on opening up the extreme underfloor, flipping the belly pan inlet compared to the 2023 version. At Ferrari, they attempted a first approach in that direction, but the results in the wind tunnel didn’t yield positive outcomes. The design of the inlets is not exactly a copy of Red Bull’s, but rather more similar to that of the McLaren MCL38. We’ve already emphasized how difficult it will be for teams to go for a copy-paste of this year’s Red Bull concept without altering the layout of the coolers inside the sidepods.

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Meanwhile, in Maranello, they are optimistic about the potential shown by the new aerodynamic package that will be introduced at Imola. The choice not to introduce the entire updated aero package already for the Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit is due to the fact that the SF-24 has started well, and it was preferred to work on the new package until the Easter week, as confirmed by F1 journalist Rosario Giuliana.

Same rear wing in the first three GPs

A technical fact from these first three outings of the SF-24 is derived from the consistent use of the rear wing. Interestingly, Ferrari is the only team in the upper zones of the standings to have used the same rear wing in all sessions so far. On the fast track of Saudi Arabia, the rear wing of medium-low downforce was also brought, after already being tested on the Fiorano circuit during the first kilometers of the red car’s testing, but it was never mounted. For this year’s red car, there is the possibility to play with the beam wing configuration much more as compared to the 2023 Ferrari F1 car.

It’s a choice against the trend compared to the last two years of ground effect cars, where Ferrari has always often times varied in terms of rear wing choice. Some tests done during the free practice sessions at Zandvoort last year were useful in understanding the direction to take in that regard on project 676. Precisely on the Dutch circuit, a revised beam wing was seen – very similar to the specification of the SF-24 – not paired with a low-load wing. A correlation work done between the wind tunnel and the track, proving useful on the current car.

Even at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, the team worked a lot on the setup through the choice of the beam wing, opting for the single-element from Saturday onwards. The upcoming stages of Suzuka, China, Miami, and Imola are not too dissimilar in terms of load requirements; it will be interesting to see if the trend seen in the first three races will be confirmed on the Ferrari SF-24 car.