The new floor brought by Ferrari to the Hungaroring seems to have partially resolved the issues encountered in recent races. Besides the lap times, telemetry confirms this, so let’s analyze it together.
Looking at Carlos Sainz’s best lap time in the first free practice session and comparing it with Max Verstappen’s best lap time, its is encouraging to see that the Ferrari SF-24 car flies on a single lap, especially on a track where overtaking is far from easy. The aerodynamic update package brought by Ferrari at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix worsened the car’s behavior in fast corners, but the corrective updates in Budapest achieved some of the desired result.
Comparing Carlos Sainz’s performance to Max Verstappen’s in qualifying simulation, the SF-24 is noticeably more competitive in fast corners, especially compared to what could be seen in the previous races. The biggest problem of the previous updates was the bouncing triggered in sections over 200 kilometers per hour. In Hungary, this phenomenon was not observed, and the car performed as expected.
The good news doesn’t stop there: besides being fast on a single lap, Ferrari is also very competitive in race simulation. We just need to look at the comparison between Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, and Geroge Russell on a lap down to the thousandth in order to highlight the following: the SF-24 is excellent at low speeds, both in cornering and traction, and now (unlike in previous weekends) it defends itself well in fast corners.
But just to be clear: the “corrected” version of the new Ferrari is not the best car at high speeds. Still, overall it is a different car compared to recent outings. In short, thanks to the corrective updates brought to Budapest, Ferrari seems capable of fighting for a significant result, although it is still early to say.
We will see if the rest of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend confirms what could be a real turnaround, even with a World Championship perspective.
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