Importance of Spanish GP for Ferrari amid F1 car updates and avoiding past mistakes

In Formula 1, the most important race is always the next one. For this reason, the many mistakes made by Scuderia Ferrari at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal have brought Frederic Vasseur’s team back to reality after the (justified) enthusiasm and celebrations following the victory and the double podium finish on the streets of Monte Carlo in Monaco.

Looking closely at what happened in the Canadian Grand Prix, it seemed like some of the ghosts that marked Ferrari’s recent past had returned. From a strategy that was at times incomprehensible to a setup that never went in the right direction starting with the free practice sessions, the fans were momentarily transported back to 2022 unfortunately.

At the same time it must be said that the two Formula 1 seasons are diametrically opposed and in some ways incomparable. In the last year of Mattia Binotto’s management, the first with the new regulations, Scuderia Ferrari appeared on the starting grid as a serious title contender and won two of the first three rounds of the championship, the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, only to then miss out on other possible victories due to power unit reliability issues as well as some questionable strategy decisions made by the Maranello pit wall which cost Charles Leclerc the race win in Monaco and the Silverstone circuit. Frederic Vasseur’s Ferrari team, on the other hand, has perhaps been the big surprise of this first part of the 2024 Formula 1 championship. After the difficulties of the previous season, few would have bet a euro on a Ferrari car capable of fighting for podiums and victories from the start.

In hindsight, the choice made by Haas at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix could have allowed the two Ferrari SF-24 cars, or at least one of them, to attempt an incredible comeback in the very early stages of the race. Charles Leclerc’s subsequent power unit problem effectively threw the Maranello team into total confusion, with the Monegasque driver himself asking to switch to hard tires. This choice did not pay off, although the damage to the number 16 SF-24 certainly didn’t help in deciding on the best strategy in Montreal.

So far, one of the main strengths of Frederic Vasseur’s Ferrari has been arriving at the beginning of the race weekend with a setup almost ready once the cars hit the track for the first free practice session on Friday. In Canada, however, the situation seemed different, with a Ferrari that went from Friday’s competitiveness to Saturday’s and Sunday’s great difficulties.

As we said at the beginning, the most important race is always the next one. For this reason, as Carlos Sainz also stated, the Italian side must get back on the right track already in the upcoming round of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix. The Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona will probably be the real test in view of the second part of the championship and hopefully the updates that the Maranello team’s technicians plan to introduce will allow the SF-24 car to return to the top and challenge its main rivals for podiums and race victories.