A month without Formula 1, but it will be a month of rearming for the top teams, who will bring their final update packages of the 2024 Formula 1 championship to Austin for the remaining six races on the calendar.
Ferrari looks to the United States Grand Prix with some confidence, despite the fact that Circuit of the Americas in Texas is not one of the most favorable tracks for the SF-24. With the latest update brought to the Temple of Speed in Monza, the red team has made a decisive step forward, erasing the doubts of the summer and re-establishing itself as the second force chasing McLaren, which has become the reference car at the expense of a Red Bull that seems to have lost its development path, except for showing signs of a revival in Singapore.
The Scuderia’s haul in the trio of races, which were supposed to highlight the SF-24’s strengths, namely the rounds in Monza, Baku, and Singapore, has been on a downward trend: following Charles Leclerc’s incredible victory in the Italian Grand Prix, came the defeat in Azerbaijan by Oscar Piastri, and finally, the disappointing result at the Marina Bay street circuit, where the Maranello team had hoped to place both cars on the podium. The disastrous performance in the qualifying session that dropped Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to the fifth row resulted in a fifth and seventh place, which clearly did not satisfy Ferrari’s ambitions.
In three races, McLaren has collected 112 points, Ferrari 71, followed by Mercedes with 54, and Red Bull, fourth, with 41. The numbers show that Ferrari has lost 41 points to McLaren in just three races, and the gap to the Woking-based team has grown to 75 points.
Contending with the team led by Andrea Stella for the Constructors’ title is a fantasy at this point, but an attack on Red Bull for second place could be achievable, as the gap to the Milton Keynes team is only 34 points, provided that the two drivers start scoring significant points again.
The stats show that Carlos Sainz hasn’t been on the podium since the Austrian Grand Prix: seven races have passed, and that’s far too many. Certainly, in Monza, the Spaniard supported Charles Leclerc to slow Oscar Piastri’s comeback, but in Baku, he threw away a second place in the battle with Sergio Perez, and in Singapore, after crashing in his Q3 warm-up lap, he settled for seventh place after starting tenth.
The Spanish driver now feels like an outsider within the Maranello team and gives the clear impression that he has resigned himself to the role of Charles Leclerc’s supporting player, though he could still make a big move with an SF-24 that has significantly improved under the guidance of technical director Frederic Vasseur, who has coordinated the group of Italians, namely Diego Tondi, Fabio Montecchi and Marco Adurno, in the revival of Ferrari, even in the absence of former technical director Enrico Cardile, who left Maranello in order to join the Aston Martin project.
Starting next Tuesday, the role of technical director will pass to Loic Serra, who is joining the Racing Department, bringing with him his experience from Mercedes. According to rumors, the Frenchman won’t be involved in the final developments of the SF-24 single-seater but will contribute to the 2025 car and, more importantly, will lead the technical team for the 2026 Formula 1 project.
Charles Leclerc is not exempt from criticism either: the mess in Q3 at Singapore knocked Ferrari out of contention for the front row and a podium, throwing away the efforts the Ferrari Racing Division had made to fast-track the debut of the new front wing, the first interpretation of profiles able to deform with a programmed flex. Both the aerodynamics and composites departments at home performed miracles to put the two Ferrari cars in a position to compete with McLaren, but the two drivers managed to ruin it all.
Austin, therefore, will become a strategic event: each top team will play their last chips on the table for the final rush, which still represents a quarter of the season! McLaren and Mercedes have already learned the lesson of flexible front wings, while Ferrari and Red Bull will attempt to close the gap starting from Texas.
The Italian side, having debuted the wing early in Singapore, compared to the world champion team, will have the advantage of analyzing the data collected in the last race, giving them time to fine-tune things ahead of the American race and propose the most extreme solution allowed by the regulations.
Ferrari, now that it has found a good balance with the SF-24, doesn’t plan to make drastic changes but is defining other small adjustments to keep the car balanced on the various circuits remaining on the 2024 Formula 1 calendar.
The potential to win the “derby” with Red Bull should be there. It remains to be seen if the team can translate Maranello’s efforts into points: last year Ferrari finished third in the Constructors’ Championship.
Mercedes has already been surpassed, as there is a gap of 112 points, and now the goal is to overtake the reigning world champions. That leap would be significant as Ferrari would surpass the two rivals that were ahead of them last year. McLaren’s rise and explosion, however, was unexpected, but it wouldn’t be shameful to finish behind the papaya-colored cars.
It now remains to be seen if targeting what once seemed an unreachable Red Bull is in fact an illusion or it could become a real opportunity in this final part of the 2024 Formula 1 championship.
