“The SF-24 is a more stable car,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur emphasized immediately after the first feedback collecetd by his staff in the winter pre-season testing session which took place at the 5.412 km Bahrain International Circuit located in Sakhir, Bahrain. The goal of Scuderia Ferrari was to correct the main flaws of the SF-23 single, which was fast but inconsistent and therefore to deliver to Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz a car capable of maintaining a constant pace without hassle, being gentle on the tires in terms of degradation.
The mission has been largely accomplished, and only Red Bull with the leap forward of the RB20 (which is still to be ‘refined’) is still ahead of the Reds at the start of the 2024 Formula One season. In Bahrain, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc (who had to manage a critical brake issue that cost him about six tenths per lap) finished in third and fourth positions, while in Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah circuit, with all probability, the result would have been the same (in terms of the placement of the two Ferrari cars), but Carlos Sainz had to miss the race due to appendicitis.
Ferrari Driver Academy member Oliver Bearman climbed aboard the #55 SF-24, astonishing everyone by being just 36 milliseconds away from entering Q3 after just one free practice session in the Ferrari car (with temperatures completely different from those of Qualifying) and finishing the Grand Prix in seventh position, ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
Italian former racing driver and the 2012 GP2 Series champion, Davide Valsecchi, commented on the British driver’s performance in the analysis of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on his YouTube channel ‘ValseMotori’: “Oliver Bearman has made a masterpiece, I wonder where he would have arrived if he had also had the Thursday free practice sessions because he would certainly have qualified better – Davide Valsecchi’s explained.
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“If the race were to be replayed after 48 hours, I am sure he would finish fourth or fifth. Oliver Bearman’s performance shows that Ferrari has made an excellent car, an easy to drive car. If I think back to Fisichella who debuted at Monza with Ferrari in 2009 after the podium in Spa without scoring points… moreover, this generation of young drivers raised with simulators and telemetry is certainly very prepared, as Liam Lawson demonstrated last year often outperforming Yuki Tsunoda”. – the former Sky Sports F1 commentator concluded.
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