A cunning and open Ferrari that is receptive to criticism. This has been the attitude of Fred Vasseur and his team in recent weeks. The victory in Singapore quelled the criticism only partially, which once again rained down after the Japanese Grand Prix. But it’s only right. Climbing to the top of the podium just once in a season is certainly not enough, especially for the Prancing Horse, which has long been accustomed to others’ triumphs. But everything is about to change.
This phase of standstill where words about the future are missing is deliberate, not a random silence. The restructuring of the red team is in full swing. While waiting for the big pieces, with considerably longer timelines, the sporting management is currently undergoing a “technical revitalization.” It was necessary to provide stability to the factory at Via Abetone inferiore 4. Various areas are being worked on, one of them being the department responsible for managing the vehicle dynamics.
Despite some mistakes made, the engineers at Maranello know their craft. To confirm this, consider an incident reported by our editorial team on February 27, 2023. An unprecedented rear suspension system was spotted on the RB19 to enhance longitudinal grip during traction. The left and right arms formed an “arrow” configuration, with a clear offset of the triangles: one pointing towards the front, the other looking at the rear.
We are talking about a solution inspired by the one mounted on the Ferrari F1-75. All of this goes to show that interesting ideas abound within the GES (Gestione Sportiva or Sporting Management), and they are often copied by competitors. What hasn’t worked pertains to the overall vision of the car. As we know, Formula 1 cars are subject to a continuous performance impact driven by balances.
This is a key concept from an engineering standpoint, essential for making all the introduced solutions on the car factual. Work is relentlessly being done on this aspect to achieve the necessary technical cohesion that can add value to the success of Project 676. Waiting until 2026 is not possible, especially for the historic Italian team. It’s a “silent must” fueled with ardor.
Ferrari, Project 676: More Than “Simple” Engineering Solutions
The absence of on-track testing is a limiting condition for all Formula 1 teams. It seems to be a bigger hurdle for the workgroup that has been striving for years in Italy to create a car capable of competing, at least until the end of the championship, for a World Championship title that has been missing since 2008. The year when the steering wheel of the red car was held by Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Even though, as recently emphasized, the correlation between simulator and track works, validating new components remains quite challenging.
To do so, the process is much longer than one might think. Transforming the assessment of an update from subjective to objective requires a considerable amount of time. To fully exploit the various characteristics calculated by computers, precise feedback is needed at different levels of installed loads. This “technical journey” is usually considered complete only after three Grand Prix events, where track layouts are dissimilar and involve various types of corners.
This brings us back to the remarks made by Charles Leclerc, which have probably gone somewhat unnoticed but are quite revealing regarding the current efforts. For Ferrari, the 2023 season has quickly turned into a sort of test for the short-term future. Various updates, more or less significant, are an integral part of Project 675. Copying Red Bull makes sense up to a point. The group led by Enrico Cardile knows this well: trailing a winning team makes you a loser. This statement “explains” that the work of Italian aeromechanical engineering currently under development will have its own identity built on solid foundations.
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These concepts give the Italian team good reason to hope for one simple reason: when there is a significant technical lag and the applied approach doesn’t exploit the key elements of the regulatory framework from which to draw competitiveness, the margins for maneuver are quite wide. In theory, it’s an interesting thought that, of course, to avoid being discarded in the list of “at least we tried,” must be confirmed on the track.
Ferrari, Project 676: Adding a Figure to Its Value Thanks to Others’ Work
The past weekend has been quite interesting for our editorial team. Despite the absence of Formula 1, an informal chat with some technicians provided several interesting pieces of information and, above all, many confirmations regarding the hypotheses we’ve been putting forward in recent months. A conversation about the vortex structure of the SF-23, revised and corrected, not to study the present but to plan for the future. An effective practice that has also given a lot of confidence to Ferrari’s Monegasque driver. It is him, as we emphasize once again, on whom the Italian effort is building its aspirations.
Anticipating and describing with precision the changes that an F1 car will unveil to the world is virtually impossible. We know that. However, the unveiling of the red car next January will likely raise some eyebrows, in a positive sense, of course. We’re talking about solutions that we can undoubtedly define as unprecedented. The experimentation carried out during the 2023 racing campaign has set clear objectives. The Italian team has studied Red Bull and, above all, McLaren over the past few months.
The McLaren team has provided several areas of research. This is an important piece of information that should not be underestimated. Sporting management has, therefore, made certain principles less cloudy. Factors that will be put into play with superior knowledge and, as mentioned, will bring with them the desire to surprise. The opportunity to modify the chassis and dimensions of the new car has allowed the engineers to conduct a reshaping that was unthinkable during the ongoing season, where budget cap restrictions have been taking their toll.
In other words, to be as clear as possible, Ferrari has decided to spend a lot of time examining its competitors. They did this with their design foundation in hand, comparing ideas with the solutions of others. This approach was useful for gaining insights into the “tricks and secrets” of third parties who added awareness to what was already present. As of today, the discussions on this subject have ended, pending factual technical evidence.
Source: Alessandro Arcari for FUnoanalisitecnica
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