Ferrari SF-24: why 2024 F1 car adapts better to Charles Leclerc's driving style

Scuderia Ferrari emerged as the fastest team in the three days of Formula 1 pre-season testing, securing the top time in two out of the three days at the 5.412 km Bahrain International Circuit located in Sakhir, Bahrain and leading the overall standings. The reliability of the Italian engine was also noteworthy, with the SF-24 completing 416 laps, second only to Haas, also powered by an ‘Italian’ engine. However, the SF-24 is not considered the favorite for victory in the first race of the season this Saturday.

The SF-24 is a more stable and predictable car.

The SF-24 is the Italian team’s first full downwash car. Therefore, it’s not surprising that it is conservative in certain technical aspects. However, conservative doesn’t necessarily mean slow. The goals with the 676 project were clear. “Last year we had a very difficult-to-drive car, quite inconsistent, and very sensitive to external factors such as asphalt and wind,” said Fred Vasseur, the team principal of the Italian team. The pre-season testing session provided many positive answers. The SF-24 single-seater is a more stable and predictable car than its predecessor, the SF-23. “We’ve taken a big step forward. The feedback from the drivers is very positive because they feel in a much better position in the car,” stated the engineer from France.

The SF-24 has improved significantly in medium-speed corners, with increased aerodynamic load without compromising efficiency. The front end is more solid, and, above all, the balance is now more neutral. The Bahrain circuit, being heavily rear-limited, cannot be entirely indicative and definitive; from this perspective, the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona in Spain would have been a better track, especially to fully understand the progress made on the front end. No significant innovations were introduced in the three days, except for a slightly different beam wing, and the same will be true for the first Grand Prix weekend.

The SF-24 adapts better to Charles Leclerc’s driving style.

The driver who seems to benefit the most from the changes made by the Italian side to the SF-24 is Charles Leclerc, who had already made significant strides in drivability since the last Japanese Grand Prix last year. The 2024 car from the Italian team is another step forward in this regard and, in general, seems to adapt more easily to the different driving styles of the two drivers, rather than being optimized only in one direction, as was the case with the SF-23.

In Bahrain, Charles Leclerc demonstrated that he can return to driving as he likes, preferring a setup with more curve direction rather than using sharp trajectories, as Carlos Sainz prefers. In the tests, it was observed that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz drove quite differently; the Monegasque braked earlier, was therefore less stuck to the brakes on entry, and partially accelerated during cornering to control the rear and be more ready on exit.

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Simulated race for Ferrari with already aggressive mappings to obtain important data on tire consumption.

Ferrari is the least hidden car in the race simulation. In Maranello, they couldn’t do otherwise if they wanted to exit the pre-season tests with important certainties about resolving, at least in Bahrain, the significant tire wear issues encountered, especially during the first half of the last Formula 1 season. The mappings used were not too far from those that will be exploited next week in the race. The two drivers used quite different setups both mechanically and aerodynamically. Charles Leclerc opted for less rear load, which on a rear-limited track could have put stress on the tires, and to some extent, it did. But wear was contained, considering the Monegasque’s much faster pace compared to his Maranello teammate. Thanks to his driving style, he managed to handle the greater oversteer, thus managing the overheating of the rear.

Red Bull and Max Verstappen decided not to reveal their cards, conducting some runs in the afternoon of the last day with the same fuel but different tire compounds. Therefore, the significant advantage of the Dutch driver in the comparison between runs on C3 with that performed by Charles Leclerc should not be surprising, as, according to a rival team, the world champion could have had a weight advantage of 20 kg (5 tenths). However, Red Bull’s sandbagging was not limited to that choice, as Max Verstappen ran all the runs with a very cautious hybrid mode. For these reasons, the tire management of the Dutch champion was practically perfect, with no signs of degradation on the three compounds used (C1, C2, and C3).