Ferrari: new chassis, suspension overhaul and redesigned rear to overcome limits of SF-23

Ferrari: new chassis, suspension overhaul and redesigned rear to overcome limits of SF-23. Ferrari tech changes to overcome limits of SF-23 with 2024 F1 car.

The upcoming Formula One season, to the hope of many, is expected to see some top teams closing in on Red Bull’s performance to provide a more fiercely contested championship. Fears that Adrian Newey has kept something up his sleeve exist, and Pierre Waché, Technical Director of the Milton Keynes team, has not hidden the fact that the RB20 will be an improvement over the 2023 car in many respects. Rivals will have to work hard to prevent Christian Horner’s team’s dominance from continuing undisturbed. Among these rivals is undoubtedly Ferrari, which put up a fight in 2022 but then faltered towards the end, slipping to third in the championship in the just-ended season, despite a strong finish. In Maranello, efforts are underway to provide Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz with a car suitable for challenging for the championship.

Ferrari: Updates “Saved” Due to the Limits of the SF-23
This year’s car has been a puzzle for most of the Formula One season for the engineers in Maranello. The starting point was wrong, with an unstable and underperforming car compared to simulator data from the start. The SF-23 is a car born with issues, and the technicians led by Enrico Cardile could only partially remedy it. Chassis, suspension, gearbox, and Power Unit layout naturally prevent significant changes during the ongoing seasons due to the budget cap blocking overly expansive remodeling expenses. The change that occurred in Barcelona was an attempt to approach Red Bull’s downwash philosophy, creating a hybrid version of the SF-23 without completely abandoning the concepts designed in Maranello. The most significant update was the floor introduced in Suzuka, which provided greater stability to the aerodynamic platform of the Ferrari SF-23, also helping Charles Leclerc feel a better connection with his car, leading to an excellent end of the 2023 Formula One season for the Monegasque driver.

Structural limits of the car prevented the technicians from working freely, leading them to decide not to push further and focus on Project 676, which, as stated by Enrico Cardile after the break in Zandvoort, will be a “revolution” compared to this year’s project. The chassis will be entirely new, the suspension will be modified for aerodynamic purposes, and the rear end will be entirely redesigned to extract more performance and have greater development freedom over time. In Maranello, the decision was made to forgo two development packages that could have been introduced this season, as they were deemed ineffective with the limitations of the current car.

Scuderia Ferrari chose to redirect those resources to next year’s car, including designs for the floor and side pods that would have further modified the SF-23 but have instead been implemented in the development of next year’s car, which has long been in the wind tunnel. With greater freedom to modify the chassis and other critical parts of the car, the Ferrari technicians are exploring various development paths in view of the 2024 Formula 1 championship.