Scuderia Ferrari is ready to land in China, the fifth round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship. The series returns to the 5.451-kilometre Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday, April 21, after a five-year gap since the last edition, which was held back in 2019. It will be the first sprint weekend of the season, a format quite divisive in its evaluation, both by fans and drivers such as Max Verstappen. Last season, the Ferrari team achieved its best results on this type of race weekends, except for the victory at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, precisely in the stages where this format was adopted.
Just think that except for the challenging track of Qatar, when the F1 Sprint was introduced, Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc secured the front row with two pole positions and two podiums on Sunday, on completely different racing circuits. The Italian team has shown excellence in terms of preparing the weekends with simulations and data analyzed in Maranello to identify a good configuration, providing track engineers and drivers with immediately competitive basic setups of the car. Another clear evidence from the last season was Charles Leclerc’s ability to arrive with his Ferrari much earlier than his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz on the limit of the car when the weekend was “compressed” due to the format.
After the first four races of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, it seems that the Monegasque driver has more difficulties in reaching the ideal tire operating window to extract the maximum potential from the Ferrari SF-24 on a flying lap. The 2024 car seems to be more consistent in race pace and less effective on the push lap. The SF-23 could activate the tires quickly, providing excellent grip on a flying lap, but at the same time the 2023 F1 car was paying a price in terms of integrity in long runs. As anticipated in a previous article, the Monegasque driver has conducted several extra simulator sessions for three days in Maranello in order to improve the activation of the compounds on the outlap, which would be particularly useful to find some extra performance in the qualifying sessions.
The target was simple: to enhance Charles Leclerc’s understanding of the Pirelli tire’s hysteresis cycle and consequently ensure the optimal tire operating window. In parallel, the engineers in Maranello, through the use of high-performance computers, most more commonly known as HPC, have studied a precise tyre model for the Ferrari SF-24, performing what is called “tailoring” of the mathematical model that simulates the behavior of the Pirelli compound, crucial to provide Ferrari with the right tools and optimize the performance of the compounds in the qualifying phases of the Formula 1 Grand Prix.
F1|Ferrari: the compressed weekend could hold many surprises.
Scuderia Ferrari aims to reaffirm its position in the Formula 1 world rankings in China as well, after the encouraging signs in the first four races of the season: the role of second force, behind Red Bull and ahead at McLaren at more or less equal distances, is the minimum target for the Italian side, as the Maranello technicians will be seeking to optimize the geometry of the Shanghai circuit around the strengths of the SF-24 single-seater. It will be very interesting to see if the team’s ability to maximize the overall result in sprint weekends last year will be factual even with the new Formula 1 technical project. And here the simulator comes into play, where 2 or 3 levels of downforce are tested in the “pre-event” preparations to assess different levels of grip on long runs and in qualifying laps.
The simulation sessions also provide the great opportunity to verify the driver’s adaptation to different levels of downforce based on its consistency and how he should adjust his driving approach based on the track layout and characteristics. Essentially, it’s a job that defines a range of use and prepares different configurations of the Ferrari SF-24 car regarding certain parameters, such as installed vertical thrust, camber, ground and suspension stiffness, type of springs, and much more. However, unlike in normal race weekends, the margin of error in sprint weekends must be minimal, otherwise, the entire event risks being compromised, considering that the time to change the set-up is very limited.
A situation that is not easy for Red Bull either. Just think of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, where during Friday’s first free practice sessions, Max Verstappen’s complaints over the team radio were quite a few. Of course, the RB20 remains the car to beat, but we have easily noticed, in the first races of the 2024 Formula 1 racing campaign, how Fridays are often a bit uncomfortable for the world champions who, only once the data from the first two free practice sessions are examined, have the great ability to correct and fine-tune the car perfectly in the final free practice session on Saturday, are only then are they ready to tackle the qualifying session at its best.
On the contrary, the red car hits the track and from the first lap feels comfortable, working on fine-tuning to optimize the setup. Without a doubt, the Shanghai International Circuit represents an important question mark regarding the setting of the wing car, which has never raced in China until now. A context where, deliberately, Liberty Media wanted to emphasize the scenario by including the first Formula 1 Sprint of the 2024 championship. A way to mix the cards more and offer a higher degree of uncertainty, at least this is the hope of the Formula 1 owners, who are trying to revive the interest of fans. Scuderia Ferrari has made great efforts in this regard and awaits the “tire test” on a very beautiful but quite technical and difficult track.
Source: Roberto Cecere for FUnoanalisitecnica
Leave a Reply