After having already tested the track during the Fiorano filming day, the SF24 EVO started off on the right foot in the first free practice session at Imola. Charles Leclerc finished the initial 60 minutes ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes and teammate Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari, how valuable are the Imola updates?
The anticipation for the new updates is intense, considering the substantial work done, especially in the sidepod and floor areas. However, both the drivers and Frederic Vasseur have tempered expectations, suggesting that while the package will bring Ferrari closer to Red Bull, it won’t be enough to completely close the gap by the end of the championship.
Speaking at a press conference, Jock Clear, Senior Performance Engineer for Ferrari and former head of the Ferrari Driver Academy, detailed the new aero package: “This is an organic development of the car. We’ve known the development path for this car from the start of the season, and we’re following it. I think when Charles talks about the car’s weaknesses, we’re obviously six races in, and there are areas we’ve identified.”
“All these areas will never be made worse. If you bring a car with greater potential, there’s always a development path, and all teams will continue along it.” – the English senior performance engineer added – “Clearly, there are things we can do to address the car’s weaknesses, and I think it’s more about the setup. As I said, this development is fostering organic growth. It’s just a bit more refined with a bit more flavor.”
Still refining the setup
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“The setup is probably the area we’re still working on,” the British engineer continued. “We have some developments there as well. We’re trying to refine the setup a bit more to extract more from the car and target those weaknesses we’ve identified in the first six races.”
When asked how long it will take to extract the maximum potential from the setup with the new package, Jock Clear responded: “There’s no real answer to that question. If you have the right opportunities, you can fine-tune everything very quickly.”
“If today is a relatively clean day and both drivers feel comfortable with the car, it’s absolutely possible to do it in two sessions. You can’t do it in just one session, unfortunately. In a Sprint weekend, it would always be complicated with any update. If it’s a monumental change to the car’s characteristics, it will take much longer, but as I said, these updates are relatively small in historical terms. There used to be gains of three-tenths, but those times are over. All teams now have a much flatter development curve. A development of a tenth is what you’re looking for to move up three or four positions on the grid if you’re in the top 10.” – Jock Clear concluded.
Source: f1ingenerale
