After the first six Grands Prix of the 2021 Formula 1 season and ahead of some intense summer events (now there will be a triple header of France, Austria, Austria), Ferrari is in a positive third place in the constructors’ standings , with two assets under its belt: pole positions (consecutive) and a second place, after a nightmare 2020 championship.
Analyzing the performance of the SF21 car, this year’s single-seater is an important improvement on the SF1000 .
Analyzing race by race these first 6 rounds of the world championship, paradoxically, the feeling is that Ferrari has even achieved less than what the car could express without various issues.
This would have opened a greater gap in the standings from McLaren, who is managing to maximize the result every weekend thanks to Lando Norris. It is clear that Charles Leclerc’s failure to start in Monte Carlo weighs like a boulder. In all likelihood, also given Carlos Sainz’s second place finish, a victory that is now missing from Singapore 2019. could have been achieved in Monaco. But not only Monaco. Apart from the first race in Bahrain, on all other occasions Ferrari has achieved less in the race, compared to the real potential.
In Imola the rain ruined Ferrari’s plans a bit, as well as having problems with Charles Leclerc’s radio. In Portugal a too aggressive strategy and a wrong setup choice compromised Carlos Sainz’s race especially (as the Spanish driver finished outside the points).
In the last two events, the SF21 has instead gone beyond expectations. If we look at the predictions at the beginning of the year, they pointed to a Ferrari that has certainly improved compared to last year, but not capable of scoring pole positions. The transition year, before the technical revolution 2022, and the various freezes imposed on the macro-components by the FIA, were no small obstacle for the creation of a more competitive car.
Ferrari, in terms of making the 2021 car, appears to have taken the longest step forward without tripping over. On the other hand, teams like Aston Martin and Alpine have fallen short of expectations, contributing to the recovery of Ferrari this year. However, giving the opponents demerit does not do justice to the work done by the Maranello technicians, who were able to give the two drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz a car capable of immediately giving confidence.
One of the problems of last year’s SF1000 was in fact that of giving the drivers a car that was too sensitive in its behavior to varying set-up conditions. Problem to which an unstable rear was added, especially with a high drag coefficient (the aerodynamic map of the SF1000 was designed for ‘another’ engine), to which a not very powerful 065 Power Unit was added.
One of the most revised areas on the Ferrari 2021 project, as we know, concerns the Power Unit 065/6, now capable of delivering over 40 HP more than in 2020, at the maximum exploitation range.
The SF21 suffers much less in power, especially in qualifying. The gap that the Italian PU has as compared to the most performing one, Mercedes, is in fact only 15 HP, which increases in the race to 20 HP (it is an important gap) due to higher fuel consumption on which the Italian team is working for 2022.
At the same time Ferrari is still behind in terms of cooling. Ferrari, compared to its rivals, is more “borderline” with operating temperatures, and the bodywork needs to occupy more space to better dispose of the heat.
This is certainly one of the main flaws of the current Ferrari engine, as it is not possible to work on the bodywork as the reliability of the components would suffer.
However, it is clear that the current Power Unit is one of the most important steps forward compared to 2020 . According to an internal source, “it is worth at least 70% of what we have recovered compared to last year”.
To improve aerodynamic efficiency, more downwash sides of the Mercedes school were also adopted, while the two tokens were spent to homologate a new gearbox capable of better facilitating the aerodynamic extraction of the rear.
The rear was the main area on which the focus of the Maranello technicians was. From this point of view, Ferrari was not able to revolutionize the design of the old single-seater too much, due to the restrictions related to the homologated components. Having set a maximum threshold of two expendable tokens, the development margins were really low. Idealy Ferrari would have been able to modify the entire rear part of the car, with a new gearbox and a new rear suspension layout, adopting a “Mercedes-Red Bull-like” shape.
In the new technical philosophy, the teams tend to occupy the volume of the lower arms in the rearmost part of the car, behind the semi-axle. This is for purely aerodynamic purposes.
Due to the maximum amount of tokens that can be spent, Ferrari therefore preferred only the change to the gearbox, only partially managing to make changes to the rear suspension; for this reason, among the various top teams, the SF21 is therefore “old school” as regards the suspension scheme.
The same issue concerns the front of the Maranello single-seater, as the SF21 remained almost identical to last season’s SF1000 in terms of chassis and suspension. The crash structure of the nose is also the same as the SF1000 , as it is part of the HC (homologated components).
This did not allow the new car to adopt a narrow nose in the Mercedes – Red Bull style, but the aerodynamics of Maranello have nevertheless worked hard to improve aerodynamics where possible closer together and the adoption of a large cape, together with new turning vanes under the chassis.
Since the beginning of the season, apart from the introduction of the Z-shaped floor at Imola, no obvious changes have been seen on the SF21 compared to the single-seater that debuted on the track in Bahrain.
With the passing of the races, drivers and engineers have understood more and more how to make this SF21 work, which, over the weekends, immediately manages to provide 100% feedback to the drivers, without going through major setup changes.
The strengths of this car are to be found in its performance with the tank empty and in slow corners. The mechanics are able to work well and also the traction of the car is really optimal.
The aerodynamic efficiency has been partially regained and the Power Unit with more horsepower allows not to go too much wing exhausts, which helps a lot.
The introduction of the floor and diffuser cuts helped to reshuffle the cards as regards the values on the field compared to last year, and globally among the top teams, Ferrari is the one that has minimized the loss of lap time from ‘ last year.
A second recovered against Mercedes, 4 tenths compared to Red Bull. Half a second and eight tenths on Alpine and Aston Martin, the only team to have gained on the ‘red’ is Alfa Romeo.
Distant memories, therefore, of those that gripped the SF1000 race weekends.
The week points concern the fast corners in support, where Ferrari is unable to reduce the limits of a car deriving from the SF1000. Some updates that will be introduced in this triple trip will try to improve its behavior.
In conclusion, the strong points of the Ferrari SF21 make it a more “glass half full” than “half empty” situation, and third place in the constructors’ standings, if it will be achieved, could be considered an important milestone, considering where Ferrari started from.
However, the work on this car does not have ample room for further improvement: Ferrari has already changed course, focusing resources on the 2022 car.
And after two good weekends like Monte Carlo (above all) and Baku, at Le Castellet the Maranello team could struggle more.
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