Scuderia Ferrari and Charles Leclerc started the Monaco Grand Prix weekend confident and were seen even as favorites by a several Formula 1 figures within the paddock, but given that Monte Carlo is the most unpredictable weekend of the Formula 1 season, the Monegasque’s first home victory was not at all a given. The main challenges? The two final laps in Q3 and the two starts, given the fact that Sergio Perez’s massive crash at the start removed the strategic variable, leaving Charles Leclerc with 77 laps in full control, guided by his new Ferrari Bryan Bozzi, which proved up to the task in this important weekend for the Monegasque driver and the Maranello team, confirming that Frederic Vasseur’s decision to replace Spanish engineer Xavier Marcos Padros with Bryan Bozzi was indeed the right one.
Ahead of the next round of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, the Canadian Grand Prix, there are now 31 points separating Max Verstappen from Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ standings, which means a victory and a bit more advantage for the world champion, but more importantly, Red Bull leads Ferrari by 34 points in the Constructors’ standings.
Beyond Monaco: The SF-24 is Limited in Slow Sectors Due to a Compromise Choice
The Monaco weekend showed us that Ferrari and McLaren were on a similar level at this stage of the season, with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri making the difference with their performance in the qualifying laps on Saturday. It’s important not to underestimate the strength of the MCL38 single-seater on the streets of Monaco, as the data relating to the ideal lap time shows that Oscar Piastri could have been on pole position and Lando Norris in third place, based on their best overall sectors, ahead of the respective SF-24 cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Important signs of improvement in slow sections for the car of the team led by Andrea Stella had already appeared in the Miami Grand Prix, but it’s interesting that the McLaren team principal stated the improvements exceeded expectations in the Principality.
However, it’s understood that the Monaco track is entirely atypical, pushing the upper limits of technical characteristics and not requiring significant setup compromises. The most crucial factor is how well a car can be optimized for highly aggressive and different technical demands compared to what other circuits on the Formula 1 calendar usually require. The car needs to operate with the softest possible setup for bumps, curbs, and high traction, combined with a high downforce package. The SF-24 proved to be highly competitive in the extremely slow urban sections of the Principality, significantly countering the performances shown earlier in the season, where it had been more brilliant in medium and high-speed sections rather than in slow ones.
With these new-generation cars, it is very challenging to find a balance that ensures the car performs well at any speed and in any situation. For example, Red Bull continues to struggle on street circuits and generally on bumpy surfaces. According to an Alpine technician, this is because their car has a very stiff rear suspension in order to maintain a stable aerodynamic platform. This compromise allows them to maximize performance at most races while sacrificing a few others.
Regarding Scuderia Ferrari, the SF-24 is not a car that lacks speed in slow sections, as Monaco demonstrated. Instead, it’s the compromise that limits it because on other tracks, the focus is often on high-speed performance, where it’s crucial not to slide in order to avoid tire wear. Last year, the SF-23 struggled significantly in high-speed sections, and tire management was far from optimal, which did not allow Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to push in the race, with the two Ferrari drivers often losing positions following a good performance in the qualifying session on Saturday.
At this stage we should also focus on a topic that has been highly discussed by the media in the last few weeks, namely Ferrari’s battery deployment. There is no problem for the Maranello team in this regard, it’s just a different energy management strategy used by the Ferrari technicians.
On the SF-24, the slow sections are partially sacrificed, even mechanically, relying on an extra contribution from the hybrid system that uses more energy during acceleration phases rather than in the last few hundred meters of the straights. This is what led to Charles Leclerc‘s post-qualifying complaint in Imola, when he mentioned that Red Bull and McLaren do something strange with their engine strategy.
On the other hand, the updates introduced at the Imola circuit slightly shifted the aerodynamic map of the SF-24 car, helping the Italian car at low speeds. However, in Monaco, it was not just a matter of updates. The key difference was the SF-24’s excellent setup window, which, unlike the Red Bull RB20, managed to meet the extreme technical demands of the Monaco circuit. Therefore it’s not true that the car from Maranello is weak in slow sections; it’s simply that Ferrari doesn’t believe this is where they can maximize lap time, especially during the race, on specific type of track layouts, as explained by F1 journalist Piergiuseppe Donadoni for formu1a.uno.
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