Scuderia Ferrari arrives at the Monza circuit, which will host the sixteenth round of the 2024 Formula 1 season, with one goal in mind: to give their all in front of the home crowd and try to secure the race victory. This is the aim for a team fully intent on making a qualitative leap forward. Something “strange” happened last weekend in the Netherlands at the 4.259-kilometre Circuit Zandvoort. In qualifying, the Maranello team delivered an inconsistent performance. Almost a second behind Lando Norris’s McLaren was a tough blow and had a demoralizing effect on the entire team. Even Carlos Sainz made this known in his post-qualifying interviews.
Then, somewhat unexpectedly during the race, the SF-24 single-seaters showed their pride and decided to go fast, much faster than anyone could have predicted. The car displayed an unexpectedly strong race pace, although, during Friday’s practice sessions with a high fuel load, the Italian car had shown very low tire degradation. On Sunday, excellent tire management allowed the two Ferrari drivers to maintain an “incredible” pace, nearly on par with the Red Bull driven by the three-time Formula 1 world champion. The result? Charles Leclerc made it to the podium, and Carlos Sainz climbed back up to fifth place.
At the end of the race, neither of the two Ferrari drivers could actually explain why. They emphasized to the media the need to understand what had happened, expressing satisfaction with their performance but acknowledging the importance of finding an explanation in order to prevent a repeat of such a poor qualifying session. The analysis began on Sunday morning. The causes of these varying performances are rooted in tire management. It was lacking on Saturday during the qualifying session. Achieving maximum grip was not possible because the tire’s warm-up process was not properly completed.
The tires lacked temperature, and the grip wasn’t what was needed. This problem needs to be corrected. It’s an issue with the SF-24 single-seater that has negatively impacted many qualifying laps. Loic Serra has been working on this for some time. The Frenchman is an expert in aero-mechanical interaction in Formula 1 cars and was key to Mercedes’ success during the early years of the turbo-hybrid era. Together with him, Ferrari has been studying the suspension setup of the car to impart characteristics that could improve things while waiting for a radical change in kinematics for next season.
Ferrari knows what it wants. In the last two editions of the Italian Grand Prix, the team secured two pole positions. However, on Sunday, the race pace was never strong enough to fight for victory. For this reason, the approach to this year’s race weekend is intended to be different. Qualifying will still be important, but Ferrari’s technical department is determined to find the right setup to fight for victory until the end of the race. There is a lot of optimism. Team principal Frederic Vasseur made no secret of this in his remarks leading up to the weekend in front of the home fans.
Technically, Monza is a unique circuit on the Formula 1 calendar, with characteristics that set it apart from other racing circuits and pose particular challenges. This makes the Italian Grand Prix a place where the cards can easily be reshuffled, especially for Ferrari. In the last championship round, the two SF-24 cars showed very positive signs, which, however, should not be interpreted as a concrete step forward. The Maranello team is making every effort to better understand the car and achieve the long-awaited step forward.
This refers to a gradual improvement in performance. Some aerodynamic updates aimed at solving evident problems will arrive this weekend. A new aerodynamic package will indeed be introduced. Although it was mainly supposed to be the usual track adaptation, in reality, other important upgrades will also be present. There is talk of changes to the car’s floor as well. It remains to be seen whether this is yet another “patch” while waiting for a major overhaul of all components or if the team has accelerated development so much that they are arriving at Monza with already planned innovations.
The rest of the front and rear wing specifications we will see will be the low downforce versions, based on the configuration used at Spa-Francorchamps. There is talk of an extremely low downforce rear wing, similar to the one brought last year, combined with a front wing with the final flap reduced in its chord. Last year, the SF-23 performed well in Italy. Therefore, a similar adaptation is expected, especially since the roots of the SF-24 and its predecessor are the same. Ferrari suffers less on circuits that require a lower aerodynamic compromise.
On tracks where there is a greater alternation between straights and corners, more efficiency is needed. This is an area where Ferrari has made progress, but it is still not on the level of rival teams like McLaren and Red Bull. It will be important to understand how the SF-24 will behave with a forward center of pressure, given that the rear wings will be very unloaded. Ferrari struggles to find a balance between high and low speed. At the Monza circuit, with its long straights, the Italian side will aim to prioritize top speed at the expense of cornering grip. Other teams might adopt very different setups.
However, as we also saw in the Netherlands, managing to make a lower downforce setup work offers a great advantage, especially in straight-line performance during the race. The big unknown remains the tires, a key aspect of this 2024 Formula 1 championship. The tires are very sensitive to how they are “activated,” and a few degrees of difference in the operating range can make a huge difference. Monza will have a new track surface, which becomes another crucial factor that many drivers mentioned after the race in the Netherlands, already looking ahead to the next weekend.
Several circuits have been resurfaced only to offer a very different level of grip. For this reason, it will be quite necessary to adapt the car’s setup accordingly. In this competitive context, simulations play a fundamental role: the teams that have done this type of work on the new track surface more accurately will, in fact, arrive on Friday with a significant advantage. The Scuderia Ferrari technicians and engineers believe they have done this perfectly and, with the addition of the updates, they are aiming straight for the top in the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.
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