Scuderia Ferrari heads to Melbourne for the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, the Australian Grand Prix, with the goal of uncovering the actual potential of the SF-24 car, which the Maranello engineers believe is higher than what was shown in Bahrain and at the Jeddah circuit so far. The Melbourne circuit has always been favorable for the Prancing Horse. While awaiting for the planned developments that should arrive in Suzuka and most importantly at the Imola circuit, let’s discover the innovative solutions hidden in the Ferrari SF-24 car.
In the history of the furthest race from Italy, Australia, Ferrari is the team that has scored the most points: despite the different tracks and configurations of Melbourne’s Albert Park, we’ve always seen a competitive red car. Charles Leclerc’s victory in 2022 marked the tenth win for the Maranello team at this circuit (we should note that only McLaren has done better with 11), and the 412.5 points scored are the highest total, with McLaren at 336, Mercedes at 276, and Red Bull at 217, despite their recent periods of dominance.
Therefore, the Italian side approaches Australia with some confidence: the third race of the 2024 Formula 1 season after Bahrain and Jeddah provides a new challenge on a track completely different from the previous two, which could better suit the technical characteristics of the SF-24 single-seater. Ferrari has established itself as the second force in the championship so far, although the gap to Red Bull in the race seemed more significant than what the Maranello team was hoping for before the start of the season, with Charles Leclerc in Jeddah and Carlos Sainz in Sakhir settling for third on the podium, not only behind Max Verstappen but also the second Red Bull RB20 of Sergio Perez.
On the other hand, the good news for Ferrari is that other competitors seem decidedly further behind. In Melbourne, a track with medium load requirements, the Maranello engineers could find conditions that better suit the SF-24, meaning the rear wing, adjusted in Jeddah as a necessity in order to match the setup also used in Bahrain), should be more suitable, and the red car shouldn’t suffer a penalty in terms of top speed as it did in Saudi Arabia.
The Albert Park track combines some characteristics of a permanent circuit: requiring high fuel consumption due to stop-and-go sections alternating with medium-fast corners, it is important to have a good compromise between aerodynamic load and efficiency.
So far, the SF-24 has appeared brilliant in medium-speed corners (even faster than the Red Bull RB20), holds its own in fast corners, and struggles a bit in slow corners, primarily due to traction issues on corner exit. It should be noted that the red car has undergone a transformation compared to the SF-23, thanks to the profound interventions by Enrico Cardile’s team, who revolutionized the chassis (which is now longer and narrower) and the transmission (which is shorter), resulting in a new power unit position in order to favor certain behaviors of the car due to a different aerodynamic center of pressure.
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The layout of the new Ferrari car is certainly better than that of the SF-23, but the single-seater still needs tuning once the critical points are identified. If last year tire wear was the most serious issue, this year a certain difficulty in generating tire temperature has emerged.
At the Jeddah circuit, engineers tried to load the rear wing (sacrificing aerodynamic efficiency), while the data collected by the Pirelli technicians highlighted that it was more important to work on the suspensions to find the necessary mechanical grip (in Saudi Arabia, Charles Leclerc couldn’t assure tire warm-up with just two laps in Q2, indicating it wasn’t a matter that could be fixed by different downforce levels).
The new, shorter transmission was designed to meet different needs at the rear: let’s therefore carefully analyze the reasons behind Ferrari’s choices, while still maintaining the pull-rod suspension layout, whereas most teams have gradually switched to push-rod, except for Haas, which remains loyal to the design of the Prancing Horse.
The first intriguing aspect is the pull-rod: on the SF-23, it was very long and forward-leaning because the internal mechanisms were located on the floor at the front of the gearbox. Now the arm is shorter because the systems have been moved further back and, above all, higher, freeing up the lower area for Venturi channels. Despite sticking with the pull-rod, Ferrari’s engineers managed to give an aerodynamic advantage to the department led by Diego Tondi, without shifting all the weight of the mechanisms upwards as with the push-rod.
Therefore, Ferrari had the courage to introduce a “hybrid” version, much less conventional in concept and certainly innovative. The gearbox has been miniaturized because the upper arm is now pivot-mounted very high on a raised saddle. In the rear, the Scuderia no longer has double wishbones, but the SF-24 adopts a multi-link solution both above and below, giving track technicians more adjustment options.
It’s not surprising, then, that in Maranello they haven’t yet found the ideal setup, and it’s not excluded that in Australia we might see a cover on an arm that didn’t appear in Jeddah. It’s curious that the driveshaft isn’t inserted in a single carbon fiber wing element, but there are two different elements that also function as flow conditioners for the beam wing.
Even the hub carrier has been completely redesigned to accommodate the new suspension mounts: you can see the Brembo caliper mounts and the lightening studied in an attempt to save weight.
In short, Ferrari may not have introduced a revolutionary car like the Red Bull RB20, but it’s wrong to think that the red car is a vehicle with limited development margins because, as we have seen, the new concepts introduced are numerous and require a lot of tuning, regardless of the aerodynamic developments that will arrive in Suzuka and at the Imola circuit.
The SF-24 is a car that must live through two seasons: in Maranello, they are confident they have laid good foundations to challenge Max Verstappen’s supremacy over the course of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, but it will take some time.
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