The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, who are heading to Australia for the dawn of a new championship, definitely has two sides. The first, the enthusiastic one, saw it as a protagonist in Milan for the Unicredit event, where it welcomed Lewis Hamilton. The second, less shining and full of doubts, relates to the disappointing performances seen in Bahrain. Italian website f1ingenerale talked about this (and more) in with former F1 test driver Matteo Bobbi, who is currently a Formula One commentator for Sky Italia.
“In Ferrari, they feel strong, that’s for sure. They feel they have a good starting base. I spoke with Fred Vasseur, and they can’t wait to get to Australia. But, as of now, they feel very confident.” This is how Matteo Bobbi begins his account of Ferrari’s pre-season condition.
In these weeks, we have seen Ferrari involved in several events, including Hamilton’s arrival and the celebration in Milan. Don’t you think there’s a risk of getting distracted from the rest?
Personally, I see Hamilton as extremely charged up for this season. He talks a lot about the possibility of winning the championship. It surprises me a little, especially when I think about how Leclerc is much more cautious and pragmatic. Lewis Hamilton, on the other hand, keeps stating that Ferrari is aiming for both world titles. I believe all of this happens because they are very happy with the car. Ultimately, if you want to be ahead, you must have done good work, and they are convinced about what they have done.
Regarding the events and all the euphoria in the background, they were also somewhat forced. The Milan event, for example, had to happen because they had to celebrate the partnership with Unicredit. Then Hamilton came, and the two things had to be enhanced. But I’m also sure that they can’t wait for all of this to end. In other words, to stop fulfilling contractual obligations and get on track to finally show what they are capable of with results.
Moving to the technical side, during the tests we noticed several novelties on the Red car. Could the revolution in the Ferrari SF-25’s front suspension be an advantage?
In Ferrari, there has been a major change in the front suspension. A change that is by no means trivial, but obviously requires a bit of time to be fully understood and to figure out how it should be exploited. The pull rod suspension (which Ferrari has chosen) offers quite clear aerodynamic advantages. The engineers pushed for this solution because it opens up more possibilities to generate downforce from the floor.
Of course, there are also drawbacks. First of all, it’s more complicated to set up, and it’s also different in terms of ground stiffness. It requires tubes with a larger diameter, which inevitably makes it heavier. So, it’s likely that the SF-25, compared to the SF-24, might lose a bit of performance in braking. But if the aerodynamic gain is significant, this might not be a huge issue.
Staying on what we saw in Bahrain, we noticed how flexible wings continue to be a topic in the paddock. Could the new directive to be introduced in Barcelona affect Ferrari’s championship?
It seemed quite clear to me that Mercedes, Red Bull, and consequently Ferrari, have spent a large part of their budget optimizing the elasticity of materials. For this reason, it seems clear that they could have an advantage over mid-table teams, at least in the first races, until the directive comes into play.
Then, it could be that after Spain, when the directive takes effect, the situation might become advantageous for those teams that didn’t want to spend too much budget. Therefore, there could be further closeness between the rest of the pack and the top three. But I can assure you that Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari have spent a lot on these wings. We’ll see.
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