Ferrari in Formula 1 is doing what it can in a 2024 championship that in some ways is absurd. The Maranello team started strong. It wasn’t at the level of Red Bull but was quite close. And above all, compared to the previous year, the gap towards the reigning world champion team was significantly smaller. The Prancing Horse seemed to have new energy and strength because the track team wasn’t making mistakes, strategy finally didn’t seem like a problem, while the SF-24 single-seater hit the track and was immediately balanced, showing an optimal correlation with the simulator, and, to top it off, the updates appeared quick and efficient.
All of this lasted until the Monaco Grand Prix where Charles Leclerc’s high point, at home in the streets of the Principality, seemed like a springboard towards glory. In this context, others were certainly not just watching. Despite the fact that Red Bull, cautious and patient, was quite confident in expanding its trophy collection, Ferrari and especially McLaren were threateningly close. The Woking team was quite good technically because the further leap forward made at the Imola circuit clarified one thing: the MCL38 could fight for race victories if optimized properly.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Mercedes also managed to get things in order. The new push-rod rear suspension baffled the vehicle dynamics department. The same went for the aerodynamics team, who in Formula 1 couldn’t find the correct working point of the floor, a key component for generating clean downforce in this era of wing cars. Then, somewhat suddenly, for the Brackley team, the excessive amount of numbers thrown randomly on the work tables in the factory started to make sense.
Just when things were looking good, Ferrari dropped the ball. They lost the technical thread and everything, as they say in these cases, went down the drain. A classic of our times because the scenario just described has unfortunately been accompanying the Maranello team for a long time now. This is the sad truth. Last Sunday, Ferrari secured a podium in the Belgian Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc. A good result considering that the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps along with Monza are the two most challenging tracks for the SF-24 single-seater given the track characteristics and the main of the weaknesses F1 car. Therefore, starting from pole position and finishing on the third step of the podium, in both cases thanks to others’ retirements, should still be accepted with some happiness.
The analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix for the red team is quickly done. The pace wasn’t good enough to win. The chosen setup wasn’t optimal, or rather, it was for what the SF-24 can offer at the moment but not enough to bring home the victory. Ferrari chose to maximize top speeds aware of its big limitation: drag. They did this because on the racing circuit that unfolds through the Ardennes forests, not going fast on the straight is too limiting. The Italian side therefore produced a specific low-drag wing that we will probably see again in September in Italy, at the temple of speed.
The critical factor concerns exactly this aspect, because maximizing top speeds with a low downforce setup and being easily overtaken by Mercedes and McLaren is not very appealing. Agreed, Max Verstappen stayed behind, but his Red Bull had a medium downforce setup. If he had passed too, it would have been disastrous. Then there’s the tire issue. Ferrari has made progress in tire management during the qualifying session. It seems so, even though only Charles Leclerc succeeded in Q3 by optimizing the outlap. On the contrary, his Maranello teammate suffered quite a lot.
So we don’t know if it’s correct to talk about progress or not. Undoubtedly, at least tactically, the choice to use a brand-new set of green-banded Pirelli tires in the final qualifying attempt paid off for Charles Leclerc. Therefore, we await further confirmation from this perspective. The same goes for the race, as on Hard tires, the red car performed very well in the middle stint, while on the medium tires, it couldn’t find the ideal pace. For this reason, Lewis Hamilton easily took the lead on lap 3, able to head the pack without ever being challenged by the Monegasque driver.
There is an additional reflection to make regarding the performance of the SF-24 car on Hard tires. In the third stint, the cars are lighter, and therefore, with progressively less fuel, cornering speeds increase, as the need to manage the tires is less. This is a context Ferrari struggled with because bringing more speed into the corners caused the annoying aerodynamic bouncing to resurface. This bouncing limited the performance of the white-banded tires, buried the few remaining hopes of victory, and, along with the other factors mentioned above, contributed to Oscar Piastri’s overtake.
In Formula 1, any action taken is preceded by a very precise motivation, whether right or wrong. Considering that in the top category of motorsport, these decisions are often made in a matter of seconds more often than one might think. All these actions preceded by the reasons for making the choices are nothing but life in motorsport. Finding a sense in all this is not always easy. The tight timings combined with the difficulties can cause logic to be lost in an instant.
Faced with this confusion, releasing stress and taking a moment to pause seems more necessary than ever. This is why the just-started holidays are useful. The time to “relax” the brain has arrived. The last consideration of this article concerns the updates. According to our information, Ferrari has been working for some time to produce further updates. It remains to be seen how and in which area of the car. In this case, the news concerns the timing. Apparently, the goal is to present some updates at the resumption of the 2024 Formula 1 championship, at the Dutch Grand Prix to be precise, which could (hopefully) improve the performance of the SF-24 car.
Source: FUnoanalisitecnica
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