Immediately after the unveiling of the new Ferrari SF-24, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc had the opportunity to test the innovations on the car during the filming day and shakedown.
On Wednesday, the Italian website f1ingenerale immediately noticed a very interesting detail. The Monegasque driver took to the track in the afternoon with two cars that appear to be different. The main difference concerns the hood of the SF-24 with a fin very different from what was seen during the presentation.
Ferrari Filming Day: Testing two different engine cover solutions for the SF24
In this image, you can see the solution used by Charles Leclerc around 1 pm. The fin on his car seems to be very narrow and similar to what was seen during the presentation.
Around 3 pm, however, the latest creation from Maranello featured a wider fin with a white square placed there to indicate an area that engineers and aerodynamicists wanted to keep an eye on.
Observing this extension of the engine cover, we can notice some differences. Now it is more extensive and slightly higher in the area of the race number. A modification useful for improving the straight-line stability of the car and directing the flows better towards the rear wing. Changes are also visible in the sidepods, albeit imperceptibly. The modifications are quite evident in the initial area of the underbody, where the sponsor Shell’s sticker has taken a different position.
Furthermore we can also see that the upper and lower edges of the sidepods are closer. Slightly different is also the final area of the sidepods, which seems to have been shortened and narrowed towards the center of the car to improve the airflow towards the rear.
Now it remains to be seen which of the two solutions will be chosen by the Prancing Horse for testing and the first race of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
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