Scuderia Ferrari has won two of the eight Formula 1 races that were held until now in the 2024 Formula 1 championship. The Maranello team managed to bring Charles Leclerc to victory in his home race in Monaco, on his third serious attempt starting from pole position, breaking a curse that seemed to have plagued the Monegasque forever. Fairy-tale narratives aside, it is now inevitable to place Ferrari in the midst of the fight for the Formula 1 world title.
Alongside McLaren and Red Bull, the updated SF-24 single-seater is clearly at the front and can compete for pole positions and victories in the upcoming races, at least until the update scheduled around Silverstone, with team principal Frederic Vasseur stating that the next major aerodynamic development will arrive around the historic and fascinating British Grand Prix next month.
At the same time, Red Bull no longer seems as unbeatable, and the RB20 car is having several problems on tracks where being able to attack the kerb is an important factor. Only Max Verstappen’s talent is keeping the car’s performance afloat, as believing in Sergio Perez, objectively, takes a lot of courage. Consistently, with the arrival of the European part of the season, the Mexican driver has been melting like snow in the sun, at least in recent years.
Regarding the current season, here are some key numbers: Ferrari is second in the Constructors’ Championship after the first third of the campaign, only 24 points behind Red Bull, while Charles Leclerc, who has consistently finished in the top four in every race, is chasing Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings with a 31-point deficit. So, for a 2023 that was supposed to be a carbon copy of 2022, we are quite competitive.
As we repeatedly said just before the start of the 2024 Formula 1 season, the Italian side is capable of competing for at least the Constructors’ championship, as Sergio Perez’s inconsistency, severely tested after the Mexican’s early successes behind his teammate, has reappeared. Once again, the Mexican seems to be in a vortex from which he will hardly escape.
We must not forget McLaren, probably a tad more competitive than Ferrari in pure performance terms today. However, the characteristics of various tracks will potentially tell different stories. Despite Charles Leclerc stating before Monaco that it is still too early to make assessments about a “three-way fight” at the front, the feeling is that the leading group is very compact, which means that even the small details can make a huge difference in the fight between Scuderia Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren.
F1, the topic of the world championship is taboo at Ferrari
In Ferrari, they don’t want to talk about the title, at least that’s the will of team principal Frederic Vasseur. Naturally, diverting attention to something not considered could mean overstepping, which can be counterproductive because, nowadays, making a misstep would mean losing a lot of ground to Red Bull.
However, it is inevitable that this topic needs to be addressed: given the numbers mentioned earlier, the Maranello team has everything it takes to sit at the big table, and indeed, it is already there and quite comfortably: Charles Leclerc has been remarkably consistent this year. Even with only one win, he either finishes on the podium or in fourth place, as seen in specific circumstances like in the Bahrain Grand Prix or the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Monegasque driver probably does not have the best Ferrari car he has ever driven because the first version of the 2022 F1-75 was really championship-worthy, at least until the summer, performance-wise, though power unit reliability was another story and some questionable strategy decisions from the Maranello pit wall also prevented Charles Leclerc from securing more race wins in that period. However, the updated version of the SF-24, while not yet the most powerful car of his career, is perhaps the most efficient and consistent. The only thing to safeguard is reliability, as these multiple power unit changes before Imola and Monaco should not be underestimated.
Ferrari is therefore building a winning team that by 2025 must deliver to Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton a car capable of winning races and constantly fighting for the Formula 1 championship. It is a process that takes time, but perhaps in Maranello, they are accelerating the pace. The 4.361-kilometre Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, where Red Bull could once again encounter some difficulties, must be painted red by the two Ferrari drivers and then the championship could restart at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, one way or another.
Source: FUnoanalisitecnica
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