Scuderia Ferrari had not won at the 5.793-kilometre Autodromo Nazionale Monza in 5 years; back then, Charles Leclerc beat the Mercedes cars of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton with a great defensive drive. The Monegasque driver had a Mercedes within 2 seconds behind him for 51 laps but held on to become Ferrari’s first winner at Monza since 2010.
Before this year’s Italian Grand Prix, a Ferrari had not won a race qualifying outside the top 3 since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, thanks to Fernando Alonso. This time, Charles Leclerc beat the McLaren cars of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris with a theoretically inferior car by about 0.1 seconds per lap, optimizing tire performance. The direct competition generally had more downforce, yet they experienced graining very early; rival engineers assessed that Ferrari did a much better job in terms of setup on the new track surface of the Monza circuit.
Emblematically, after many races, we note two very different versions of Charles Leclerc, which seem to reflect his maturity: the aggressiveness of 2019 compared to today’s surgical management. The Monegasque never overpushed his driving. The 2020 error at the Parabolica from overdriving a much weaker car in terms of power could not happen with this Charles Leclerc. Certainly, this is a version that Ferrari is happy to see, and days like these can increase the level of camaraderie and mutual respect ahead of the final part of the 2024 Formula 1 championship and beyond. Charles Leclerc was certainly better than Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the Italian Grand Prix, just as Ferrari was clearly better than McLaren last weekend.
If Monza couldn’t show the real value of the recent SF-24 update, the next race, namely the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, is on one of Charles Leclerc’s best tracks. Ferrari brought updates to Monza by essentially combining the ‘spec 1’ low-downforce aerodynamic package with the new floor and a more tapered bodywork. Despite never winning, if there’s a track where the Monegasque driver’s style has accustomed us to seeing a difference, it’s on circuits that require low-speed, low-downforce driving. One of Charles Leclerc’s most surreal performances was in 2020 with 4th place in the qualifying session on Bahrain’s short layout; the car ran with 60/70 horsepower less, so it always had to use a much thinner wing compared to the competition. Very clearly, the 6.003-kilometre Baku City Circuit is a medium-low downforce track where teams will use the ‘spec 2′ from Spa-Francorchamps.
After Monza, Baku and Singapore are tracks where Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur believes in good results, following positive interpretations, even strategically, at Zandvoort as in the home Grand Prix. The French manager said exactly this to the team and the staff gathered last Wednesday in Maranello to soberly celebrate the Monza victory. The idea of doing something more celebratory was there, but it was shelved to avoid giving the impression of a Formula 1 season that can be considered saved only by the result in the Italian Grand Prix. The goal is very clear at this stage of the championship: try to take advantage if Red Bull’s difficulties continue and if McLaren, which is currently the clear favorite at this moment, doesn’t execute a perfect race weekend from a strategical point of view or in terms of driver management, which has often been the case this year for the team led by Andrea Stella. The fact is that before the break, Ferrari was 64 points behind the lead, now the Maranello team has reduced the gap to 39. Reasonably, it’s also a difficult task for Lando Norris to catch Max Verstappen, who has started to race more conservatively. But the Constructors’ title hasn’t been this open between three teams in many years.
The next significant update will be to the front wing, and if necessary, Ferrari will be ready to adapt to the flexing wings of its rivals, also with a view toward 2025. McLaren, and to some extent Mercedes, clearly use more angle at low speeds but manage to balance the rear downforce in the fast corners. Ferrari has approved the next new parts, which we will see from Austin to Qatar. One of the first things Ferrari Head of Aerodynamics Diego Tondi requested was to finally implement the front wing for better interaction with the SF-24 floor’s entrance, as explained by F1 expert Giuliano Duchessa for formu1a.uno.
The new technical organization was revealed without major surprises, and despite the fact that Frederic Vasseur was the first to speak with Adrian Newey, he will not be joining the Maranello team and will instead move to Aston Martin alongside Enrico Cardile, a situation that perhaps the Italian engineer didn’t expect when he left Ferrari. According to what has been learned from Maranello, some designers from rival teams have been hired to strengthen the second-line work on the 2026 car. Loic Serra will have a role similar to Pierre Waché, a bet that Frederic Vasseur strongly believes in, while the WEC program is being used as a springboard for Formula 1, thanks to the excellent relationship between Frederic Vasseur and Ferdinando Cannizzo. The Ferrari F1 team principal, during the interim phase, while waiting to be fully ‘replaced’ by Loic Serra, has recommended that the new technical organization (and beyond) be much less conservative.
As McLaren has shown, the wind tunnel update is a key piece for developing the 677 model. The tunnel will be fully operational in a few days, but this pause doesn’t affect the work in any way. According to the sporting regulations, the top 4 teams can use the wind tunnel for about 3 to 4 days a week. The last team in the standings can use it almost every day. This shows that brief suspension periods can be recovered in the following weeks or even used in advance to conduct early comparative tests if you want to introduce new parts quickly, as in Ferrari’s case.
The next two races, for different reasons, may see Ferrari in the fight for the race win. Short edges, braking zones, long straights, and low-speed curbs are not unfavorable for the SF-24 single-seater, though we know that qualifying performance is not one of its strengths. McLaren remains the most balanced between qualifying and the race, and of the remaining 8 races this season, it seems to have at least 4 clearly in its favor, namely those with medium-high downforce. But Max Verstappen and his team are hoping for a strong reaction in Milton Keynes to defend the titles.
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