SF-24 updates: Ferrari finds itself in same situation as last year, but Fred Vasseur remains optimistic

SF-24 updates: Ferrari finds itself in same situation as last year, but Fred Vasseur remains optimistic. Ferrari finds itself in the same situation as a year ago, when updates were not working.

The updates Ferrari brought to Spain did not work as expected. The new floor, instead of improving the situation, only caused unwanted effects with the return of the dreaded bouncing.

At Silverstone, the Maranello team conducted comparative tests to understand which solution was better. In the end, Frederic Vasseur and his team opted for the Imola specifications.

However, Ferrari will need a permanent solution for the rest of the season. The team principal believes Ferrari will be able to turn the situation around, as the same thing happened a year ago. On that occasion, the breakthrough came at the Dutch Grand Prix when the team decided to sacrifice the weekend to test the SF-23.

“We stopped at Zandvoort, analyzed the situation well, and recovered because we were there in the following weeks,” revealed an optimistic Fred Vasseur to Motorsport. In these situations, he continued, it is difficult to make a decision because you are aware that you have to sacrifice a race weekend for testing. The weather, of course, did not help. We already knew this, but it was even worse on Saturday morning with the wet tires, but that’s how it went. We made the decision before the weekend, and I think it was the right decision to make.” – the French manager pointed out.

After Silverstone, the focus is now on the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, but not without some doubts. What triggered the return of the bouncing? Frederic Vasseur admitted he did not know because this problem was not encountered in the wind tunnel.

Looking ahead to the next races, the Frenchman does not believe the SF-24 will suffer from bouncing for much longer. It will be crucial to produce new elements that eliminate the bouncing effect. History shows that Ferrari has adapted to new updates, so Fred Vasseur sees no reason to be alarmed:

“I can’t speak for 2021 or 2020, but in the last 16 months, all the updates we have made have had excellent correlation with what was done in the wind tunnel.” – the Ferrari team principal concluded.