“We have to oppose these innovations.” Adrian Newey stated that within Red Bull, there were technicians who believed it was important to fight against the new ‘anti-porpoising’ rules established by the 2023 regulations regarding the car floor height and dimensions in the rear wheel area. Newey then dissuaded these technicians, hypothesizing that the rule changes would impact the aerodynamic concept on which Ferrari had designed the F1-75 more than the foundations of the Red Bull RB18.
The Ferrari F1-75 generated a significant amount of aerodynamic load in fast corners, more than the Red Bull developed. However, in 2023, the SF-23, also due to these regulatory changes, lost this characteristic, regaining performance towards the end of the season after a lengthy update process. This process allowed the Maranello-based team to gather crucial information to redesign the SF-24 by approximately 95%.
Even without the regulatory changes introduced in 2023, Ferrari would have still changed the aerodynamic concept because that of the F1-75 had reached a ‘performance saturation,’ as emphasized by Chassis Technical Director Enrico Cardile in a press conference: “I don’t think the regulatory change influenced what we did – Enrico Cardile continued – the 2022 concept was good, but in terms of how much progress we could make, we would have made less progress compared to the new concept. The choice is linked to the peak performance achievable with a specific concept. The 2022 car was stable and had a lot of load, but when we started increasing it, we began to believe that a new concept would allow us to go even further.” – the Italian aerodynamicist concluded.
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