Ferrari has won two of the last four races in the 2024 Formula 1 championship. But what is frustrating is thinking that, if they had won them all, it wouldn’t have been strange at all. The potential was there; it just needed to be properly utilized. At the Baku city circuit in Azerbaijan, they came very close, but the strategy after the tire change penalized Charles Leclerc. Letting Oscar Piastri pass and thinking of returning the favor a few laps later, with the Hard tires warmed up, threw away the final first position. For Singapore, the performance in the qualifying session weighed heavily: a competitive scenario where the tires, in Q3, dashed hopes for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Ferrari completely mismanaged the warm-up process with a deficient warm-up strategy. A factor that sent Carlos Sainz into the wall and relegated Charles Leclerc to ninth on the grid. In his case, the issue with the tire blankets also complicated matters significantly. A real shame, because, as mentioned, even at the Marina Bay street circuit, the potential to cross the finish line first was there. After a month-long break, the Italian side showed up in Texas without changing a single detail on the car, while Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren, on the other hand, made adjustments to their cars.
The F1 team based in Brackley made changes on two fronts: aerodynamics and cooling. The distribution concerning the flap twist, front wing, along the width of the profile is new. This move minimizes the wake and makes the fluid mass flowing towards the rear more effective. An update in line with the reshaping of the suspension arm. We are referring to the fairing. Two moves aimed at managing the fluids to create more downforce and increase the car’s efficiency. Modifications were also made in the edge wing area, again for the same reason, enhancing extraction.
Furthermore, we can talk about the outlets near the rear suspensions to cool the internal parts, as well as the inlets of the Venturi channels and the corrections to the side pods on the lip that “manage” the overpressure in the undercut area. Red Bull also intervened on the car for the same reasons. In the case of the RB20, there is a different curvature in the last third of the rear floor. A greater camber to optimize the car’s performance in fast corners, without “damaging” the flows that run along the floor longitudinally. We are talking about protection from dirty fluids and not extraction.
The Milton Keynes car has also shown a reshaping of the side pods, where the geometry of the component has changed to provide more cooling without sacrificing the air mass. Finally, McLaren: reshaping of the front wing that increases correlation with the suspension group and boosts the load on the front end; adjustments to the rear suspension fairing for a more efficient flow; updates to the beam wing with lower induced drag, compensated by rear load. Innovations to increase the efficiency of the MCL38, to gain more downforce without increasing drag.
The mini-summary on the rest of the top teams leads us to an interesting discussion. But first, let’s take a moment to think about Frederic Vasseur, the team principal of Ferrari. The French manager had a wild night on Sunday. It couldn’t have been otherwise when celebrating a historic double, stemming from a clear and surly dominance on track without any right of reply. The famous “stars and stripes luck” that Ferrari dedicated to its rivals. But after the celebrations, intellectual sobriety must return to Maranello. Fred, always cheerful, is responsible for tempering excessive enthusiasm as the team approaches the Mexican Grand Prix.
He mentions the various characteristics that the Central American F1 circuit brings with it. The Frenchman speaks about internal and external components. Everything concerning the power unit, the transmission, and even the tires. These elements are put to the test by the thinness of the air, given the altitude at which the circuit named after the Rodriguez brothers is located. Therefore, it is necessary to find the right balance between reliability and performance, needed to extract maximum performance without running into technical troubles. The former engineer of Alfa Romeo warns the team but defines himself as calm.
The homework has been done perfectly, awaiting the Mexican verification that will provide further answers on the competitiveness of the SF-24 single-seater. Frederic Vasseur continues his speech by talking about attention to detail, concentration, focus on oneself, and blah blah blah. Usual ritual comments that embrace the obvious if you’re working in Formula 1. He then concludes by hinting at a topic that is very attractive for us considering the moment in the season: the closely matched performance levels among the top teams. It is precisely on this point that we reconnect to the previously discussed aspect, returning to the matter of aerodynamic updates.
Ferrari crossed the finish line first at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, even though others had theoretically improved the performance of their cars. This means that the recent changes made by the Prancing Horse are tangible. Perhaps even more than expected. A brand new floor, modified in all its areas, and a reshaped front wing that offers more efficient downforce. Two truly excellent corrections, conceived by the team of engineers dedicated to aerodynamics and led by Diego Tondi, who has recently entered a “technical collaboration” with the other Frenchman of the Scuderia, “a certain” Loic Serra.
A round of applause is due for the work done in Maranello, because since September, the two SF-24 cars have truly changed their skin. For the sake of the former technical director Enrico Cardile, who after approving a highly deficient update, that floor which had transformed the red car into a hopping and unstable kangaroo, thought it best to gather his things, say goodbye to everyone, and head to England to be covered in money by Sheldon Strulovitch, a.k.a. Lawrence Stroll. He will have to deal with Adrian Newey, the good Enrico. If we want to be “naughty,” we could say good for him; he will learn how to design a Formula 1 floor.
Still, back to Ferrari and its present: will it be possible to replicate the pole from 2023 with a front row all in red at the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City? Who knows, we will see. Undoubtedly, the SF-24 car is more prepared than its predecessor and in this part of the world championship has reached a distinctive trait that could stun the opponents. If it were a proclamation, we could say the red car is fast on all types of track. An endemic characteristic that brutally raises the percentage of doing well, as the adaptation to the track and the consequent high performance seem to truly exist for the red car. We eagerly await confirmation of this factor.
An element that, if supported by facts, could open truly interesting scenarios in Formula 1. Ferrari is still in the race for the constructors’ championship if we use the mathematics. The points available in 5 races and two Sprint Races are still quite a lot. A red car approaching Mexico City and Brazil, aware of its strength, will then, during the next break before the last “triple header,” finalize the last aerodynamic upgrades and play it to the end. One last thing: Red Bull and McLaren tested the updates only in FP1 in Austin. Therefore, from today, and with more time, they could make them work better. So watch out.
— see video above —
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