From stars to pits; this could be the simplistic way to summarize the track record of the prancing horse in recent races, with the SF-24, which after giving immense joy to fans and Charles Leclerc himself in Monaco, seems to have suddenly stalled, plagued by the bouncing problems that emerged with the new update package introduced in Barcelona.
Fred Vasseur takes stock of the situation
To try to reverse an increasingly negative trend, the men at Maranello decided to “sacrifice” part of the Silverstone weekend, deciding to return to the old configuration on both cars from qualifying onwards, after a meticulous comparison in the first three practice sessions with the aim of gathering data, and consequently answers.
“The Silverstone result was misleading,” began Frederic Vasseur in an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, talking about the drastic drop in performance by Ferrari in recent races and the bouncing problems that emerged with the new aerodynamic package – “Now we understand our recent problem better than before this weekend. We had to sacrifice Friday’s practice sessions for this reason. However, the lessons learned will help us move forward.” – the French manager pointed out.
“Where is the problem? The Barcelona update is an improvement on paper, and largely on the track as well. Unfortunately, the bouncing has returned in some fast corners, but not all. Since it is not reproducible in the wind tunnel, it is difficult to understand what causes it. The bouncing increases the tire temperature and this has a cost in terms of lap time at other points. That’s why at Silverstone we compared two different specifications.” – he pointed out.
Ferrari hopes to at least partially stem the phenomenon in the upcoming stages, with the new package to be reintroduced in Hungary: “Now we have time until Budapest to find a solution. Initially, we will have to decide to create a situation without bouncing, sacrificing a bit of lap time. The goal must be to use an upgrade to solve the causes responsible for the bouncing.”
The Frenchman also added: “At the end of last season, we were already able to fight for pole position but we still had problems in the race. We recovered a lot over the winter. This season we focused more on the race. That’s why the race pace has been a bit greater compared to the ‘dry’ lap time.”
“Last year we suffered in fast corners. It’s natural to pay a lot of attention to this area and work on it in the wind tunnel. That’s why it seems that the strengths of last year are now a weakness. Currently the grid is so compact that you can no longer talk about strengths and weaknesses. When the difference is only two-tenths, something positive can easily turn into a negative. On the other hand, the development stages are becoming visible again. In the past, almost no one noticed two-tenths of progress. Now they can take you from fifth to first place or vice versa.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest.
Source: f1ingenerale
