In the 2024 Formula 1 season, Ferrari has shown undeniable progress. Compared to the previous championship, the SF-24 single-seater has resolved some issues that emerged with its predecessor and managed to win as many as five races. From the single Singapore event in 2023 to a quintet, namely Australia, Monaco, Italy, USA, Mexico, that nearly allowed the Prancing Horse team to secure a constructors’ title, which would have been astonishing.
Over the course of a single season, the Italian team moved from third to second place in the constructors’ standings, overtaking Mercedes and, most importantly, Red Bull, which had seemed unattainable to everyone until the second part of 2024. This progression now needs to be confirmed and solidified. Many innovations will characterize Project 677, which is the internal code for the Maranello team’s 2025 Formula 1 car, innovations that have recently been confirmed by Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur himself, but there is one area in particular that may receive special attention: the brakes.
The technical battle between Maranello and Woking in 2024 also played out on this front and it is worth pointing out that the Ferrari SF-24 had a much simpler brake configuration compared to McLaren MCL38. In the Mexico City Grand Prix, the most challenging of the entire championship for cooling due to the thin air, significant differences emerged. Even though Ferrari won the race at the at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, McLaren appeared less troubled. It seems paradoxical, but that’s how it was. Let’s rewind the tape.
The Ferrari engineers and technicians had opted for an aggressive configuration of the brake duct inlets, with a more pronounced narrowing of the opening, betting on the ability to run in clean air. We recall that Carlos Sainz started from pole position and Charles Leclerc from fourth position.
The strategy worked for the Spaniard, who, once he overtook Max Verstappen, which was quicker off the line, sped toward victory. Charles Leclerc was also performing well in second place, but lapped traffic in the final stages negatively impacted the strategic plan, allowing Lando Norris to catch up and overtake, taking advantage of a mistake by the Monegasque driver which was struggling with brake temperatures.
Charles Leclerc’s issues had already begun in the early stages of the Mexico City Grand Prix. When the Monegasque driver was less than two seconds behind his Maranello teammate, the brake caliper temperatures began rising alarmingly. This necessitated the use of the lift-and-coast technique, a need magnified and misunderstood in the scattered post-race social commentary.
The technical battle on that occasion between the two championship-leading teams focused on brake cooling, an area where McLaren outperformed Ferrari, despite the Mexican Grand Prix being won by the SF-24 car of Carlos Sainz. Andrea Stella, team principal of the Woking team (and also an engineer, it’s worth noting), praised his technical staff for designing and producing the new brake cooling components in time for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Italian manager, who was also part of the Ferrari F1 team for more than a decade, between 2000 and 2015, emphasized that, thanks to the new components, the issue of “cooling” was never a concern for McLaren during the Mexican weekend, allowing for excellent cooling levels without compromising aerodynamic efficiency.
The McLaren MCL38 and the Ferrari SF-24 therefore had two different approaches to brake cooling. The brake caliper cooling system of the papaya-colored car features a larger air intake compared to its red counterpart. Moreover, on the MCL38, the ducts split into a “dual-headed” cooling channel. This section, among other things, is made of carbon fiber, whereas Ferrari’s is aluminum. Carbon fiber is more thermally manageable, as it conducts less heat than metals, including aluminum.
In Mexico City, Ferrari’s system, simpler in design despite the addition of more holes on the discs, failed to dissipate heat effectively during stress phases, such as during the late lapping maneuvers Charles Leclerc had to perform. This caused overheating, contributing to the Monegasque driver’s error, which Lando Norris capitalized on. Projecting this difference onto the general behavior of the two cars, one might speculate, without claiming to reveal technical insights through simple logical reasoning, that the occasional difficulty the SF-24 had in managing the tire’s thermal window was partly due to this factor. Over the 2024 Formula 1 championship, McLaren was more consistent with the Pirelli tires, causing less stress and adapting better to varied conditions. Ferrari, by contrast, encountered serious challenges when air and track temperatures fell below a certain threshold.
The heat dissipated by the brakes is a key factor in controlling tire temperature, and it is likely that McLaren’s more complex system, combined with the use of composite materials, resulted in less sensitivity to thermal fluctuations, ultimately benefiting consistent performance and reducing tire thermal degradation.
Ferrari delivered true masterclasses in compound management, as seen in the Italian Grand Prix at the Monza circuit, but also faced significant struggles in other scenarios, such as in Canada or Brazil. These races, supporting the argument, were run in wet conditions and low temperatures.
The car to be entrusted to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will feature over 90% new parts, according to Fred Vasseur. This was presented sensationally, though it is quite normal even under a regulatory framework of continuity.
Among the updates will likely be a new design for the brake air intakes, internal fluid dynamics, and ducts for dissipating hot air. Aluminum is expected to be replaced by carbon, which is lighter (a major advantage in balance, considering it involves unsprung masses) and, most importantly, provides more consistent thermal responses, avoiding the fluctuations that negatively impact tires.
These factors affect thermal degradation and also hysteresis, the tire’s ability to deform and return to its original shape. Having a more responsive “shoe” in this respect is of vital importance. Callum Frith, head of the tire department, has pushed to achieve more consistent conditions for setting up more effective pit exit procedures, with which Leclerc, in particular, struggled last season.
Precisely because there will be no regulatory changes between 2024 and 2025, Ferrari wants to focus on refining details to deliberately aim for both titles. The second half of the last season demonstrated that Maranello has everything it takes to compete. The Prancing Horse is serious about producing a less “moody” car, less dependent on environmental conditions.
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