According to Motorsport Italy, Scuderia Ferrari is confident that the SF90’s potential is greater than shown in the first races of the 2019 Formula One season: a long process of analysis has apparently resolved a discrepancy between the data from the simulator and the track data, which should allow the Maranello team to be closer to Mercedes in France.
“The French Grand Prix? It won’t be easy for us, because the circuit is more similar to Barcelona than Montreal.” – Mattia Binotto admitted, as he put everyone on guard: the competitiveness that Ferrari has expressed on the track in Montreal will most likely not be the same on circuits which are not similar to the Gilles Villeneuve track, and Paul Ricard is not among them.
The difficulties that teams and drivers will face in the next weekend will be different than that of two weeks ago, but for Ferrari there is hope.
As emphasised by team principal, the SF90 car seen in Montreal is the same as the one in Barcelona, which means that no updates were introduced in the stages leading to Canada, but in France we will see a new front wing that is able to generate more downforce, without betraying the the outwash philosphy. But there will also be another new update, less visible but probably of a greater importance. At Paul Ricard, the SF90 will have a totally rebalanced aerodynamic configuration. It’s the result of a long verification work which has revealed some discrepancies between what had emerged in the simulator/development in the wind tunnel and the feedback on track.
The technical staff of Ferrari never stopped believing in the SF90 project, even in the difficult weekends, and a reason has to be there. If important numbers emerge from the wind tunnel, it becomes even more frustrating not to find on track the huge potential of this project, ahead of the French weekend, which will be a crucial moment of Ferrari’s 2019 season.
Why Ferrari feels a bit optimistic? Apparently the first indications coming from the simulator confirmed the correct direction of the work done so far. We will see if the response on track will be the same, but Ferrari hopes to be closer to Mercedes at the Paul Ricard circuit.
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