Ferrari prepares for F1 world championship challenge without new SF-24 floor: here’s why. The new Ferrari floor proves to be of limited use at Yas Marina..

Ferrari begins the decisive weekend for the Constructors’ Championship by forgoing the latest technical updates. The new floor, which made its debut in testing in Las Vegas and was used in the race in Qatar, will instead be relegated to a simple testing program in Abu Dhabi. This update aims to solve a chronic issue from 2024 for the next Ferrari, but the Yas Marina circuit limits its advantages in the battle with McLaren.

The plans of the Prancing Horse
From its first appearance in Las Vegas, Ferrari described the new floor as an experimental component, useful for gathering data in preparation for 2025. However, the unexpected race debut in Qatar led to speculation that the update might be confirmed for Abu Dhabi, with the possibility that Ferrari could send a second copy to equip both cars. On Friday at Yas Marina, however, Ferrari chose to send Charles Leclerc out in the first free practice session with the previous floor specification, leaving the new floor for his brother Arthur.

This decision was made because the new floor was designed to improve the car’s stability in high-speed corners, a long-standing weakness of Ferrari cars this year and in previous seasons. The updates proved useful in Qatar, on a track dominated by long, fast corners, but they became less effective in Abu Dhabi, which, with the exception of corners 5 and 12, features mostly short corners. Therefore, Ferrari chose to use Arthur Leclerc’s presence on track in the first free practice session to continue testing for 2025, while focusing on preparing for the Grand Prix with both main drivers using the old specification and configuration. As happened in Qatar, however, changes to the plan cannot be ruled out until the last moment.

A signal for 2025
The news of a floor designed mainly to improve stability in long corners aligns with Charles Leclerc’s comments from Thursday, where he described the latest update as “a different approach, very good in some areas and worse in others.” Ferrari thus sends a signal for 2025, aiming to complete the revolution started with the SF-24. For the first time in 2024, Ferrari has moved from being a qualifying-focused car to one with better race consistency, though it still carries over the instability in cornering that has plagued previous seasons. However, this weakness is something Ferrari intends to address with the next car.