One of the question marks Scuderia Ferrari was left with after the Bahrain Grand Prix is related to the brake issues suffered by both drivers, but particularly on Charles Leclerc’s SF-24 single-seater, which significantly limited the Monegasque’s race with an estimated average race pace loss of four or five tenths of a second at the Sakhir circuit last weekend.
There was a 100 degrees difference between the right and left fronts, and every lap the braking was different, as Charles Leclerc tried to explain at the end of the Bahrian race, with the Ferrari driver having to adapt significantly to finish the race in an excellent fourth place. An unusual problem that the Maranello team had not yet faced from pre-season testing up to the race. The issues that affected Carlos Sainz’s SF-24 were less significant. In the first stint and at the beginning of the second stint, the Spaniard felt some vibrations, especially when his SF-24 was approaching other cars, as confirmed by Carlos at the end of the race. The Spanish driver also mentioned the brake pedal that, at one point, started to extend.
During the opening press conference of the Jeddah weekend, Charles Leclerc revealed that Ferrari focused a lot on the brake problem they had in Bahrain. It’s something that has never happened and most importantly limited the Monegasque a lot in terms of lap time and prevented the car from showing all its potential, especially in the first part of the race. Therefore, in Maranello, they are eager to see the SF-24 perform at its best at the Jeddah circuit since they are confident they will not have the same problem here and Ferrari want to get back on track to try to fight for victories and express all its our potential, the Monegasque driver pointed out ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
After initial analysis, the issue with the front brake temperatures is not attributable to any anomaly regarding the Brembo braking system. Ferrari and the Italian company have jointly communicated that it is a new situation that occurred during the race and was not encountered during testing or the preliminary activities leading up to the championship. The analyses conducted after the Bahrain Grand Prix have not revealed any particular anomalies in the components of the braking system. Ferrari and Brembo are working together to fully clarify the technical picture; in the meantime, Brembo will continue to support the team as always, agreeing on solutions to overcome the problem encountered during the race in Bahrain, as confirmed by F1 experts Piergiuseppe Donadoni and Paolo D’Alessandro for formu1a.uno.
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Investigations will continue to try to understand the origins of these problems, which, in different ways, affected and limited both SF-24s in Bahrain. In Jeddah, it will therefore be a matter to monitor, waiting for definitive answers that will tell us whether the Maranello team will need to intervene more significantly or if the first race of the 2024 Formula One season was merely an unexpected inconvenience.
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