The 2023 Formula One season has now been over for almost two weeks, and with the engines off, it can be reasonably asserted how challenging and complex the year has been for Ferrari in terms of results and performances from the beginning of the year (with some flashes, especially in the final stages of the championship). Given the data, the Scuderia, after optimistic winter predictions and expectations, struggled immensely to extract the potential of the SF-23, which, despite being the evolution of the 2022 car, proved to be uncompetitive and “unforgiving” for the engineers.
A car that, as it has become clear, at least from what has leaked over the months from the walls of the Gestione Sportiva (GeS), was limited in its development (as was the F1-75) both by the effects of TD039 and by the adaptations to the floor imposed by the regulations against porpoising, as well as by a concept of the car now plateaued and no longer capable of providing growth margins. Hence, the 2024 car, which is in an advanced stage of development and almost in production, will be different, both in terms of lines and concept, from the current one.
Franco Nugnes, in his article for Motorsport Italy has explained how and in what atmosphere the technicians of the Prancing Horse are advancing the work in the Ferrari Racing Division towards the 2024 Formula 1 season. It is a work based on stability and will be carried out by the same technicians, the “fathers” of the SF-23, and, as always, is accompanied by high expectations.
“Ferrari has just concluded the 2023 Formula 1 season with a positive balance of the second part of the season that offsets the negative start, decidedly below the expectations of the Prancing Horse. Yet, at the Racing Department, it is not the time to lower the tension because the 676 is in an advanced stage of realization. […] Enrico Cardile and Enrico Gualtieri are the two pillars around which the first true red car under the management of Fred Vasseur is born, a single-seater that is generating strong curiosity due to the expectations that accompany it.”
A job that will rightly save what was good in the SF-23 and will revolve around the two drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, considered fixed points around which to build the future and for whom contract renewals for the coming years are being signed.
“The red car was the second force on the track in the last part of the season, outclassing the Star in points collected. […] In the Sports Management, they didn’t make a drama, trying to consolidate the good that was discovered even from a wrong car like the SF-23. While the top management of the Prancing Horse is discussing the renewals of the drivers whose contracts expire at the end of 2024.”
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The work on the 2024 car is proceeding in parallel with the strengthening of the Ferrari Racing Division structure, thanks to the arrival of the first technicians (not yet renowned) recruited by Frédéric Vasseur last spring.
“The area to be strengthened is the technical one, waiting for Loic Serra, the head of development in Brackley, to be released from Mercedes, a great connoisseur of what the tires need not to suffer the degradation that the red car has often suffered in recent years. And so, the recruitment campaign that Fred Vasseur talked about during the summer is underway: for Serra’s arrival, the gardening period will have to be completed, but in the meantime, the arrival in the Ferrari Racing Division staff of about fifteen people is expected, each of whom is freeing themselves from their contractual ties.”
New arrivals that, for the most part, will strengthen the Simulation area of the Scuderia, in fact, the most lacking over the last few seasons.
“Four or five engineers, mostly young but not inexperienced, have already landed in Maranello and will strengthen what is a strategic area of a modern F1 team: we are talking about simulation. […] Giving greater speed of action in the factory will serve not only to stay ahead of Mercedes, McLaren, and Aston Martin but should allow an approach to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in a season where the rules and, above all, the tires will remain the same as in 2023.”
New technicians who, while not being top-notch, will undoubtedly be useful to the Scuderia in learning and implementing working methods from other teams, making the team more competitive and closing the gap with their rivals.
“Surely, the names that have already arrived are not of the first magnitude, but they are young figures who bring the know-how of other top teams into the fabric of the Racing Department: it’s like opening the window to let in a breath of fresh air.”
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