SF21 is fastest car in corners, but Ferrari still has 20 hp engine deficit to Mercedes and Honda. SF21 is fastest car in corners.

According to German automobile magazine ‘Auto Motor und Sport’, the foundation for Scuderia Ferrari’s improved performance in the 2021 Formula 1 season was already laid last year: old team, but new structures and a distribution of responsibility on many shoulders. Setting priorities and relentless analysis of mistakes. You could say a copy of the Mercedes success system.

The Mercedes engineers could already see from the GPS measurements in the first four races that Ferrari has the fastest car in the corners on average. Especially in the slow corners. However, the 20 hp engine deficit to Mercedes and Honda is still visibile, but did not hurt so much in Monaco, which allowed the Maranello team to challenge for the win.

Ferrari built a completely new Power Unit last year. It still lags a little behind in terms of the combustion engine, but is already ahead on the electric side! The PU goes into charging mode later than Mercedes, Honda or Renault.

On the chassis side, Ferrari chose the right tokens. A Ferrari engineer said: “A slimmer rear end brought us much more than a narrow nose.”

Thanks to the new gearbox housing, it was also possible to steer the rear axle as high as Red Bull and Mercedes do. This improved the flow on the roof of the diffuser. In general, the engineers have focused much more on aerodynamic efficiency and stability. The SF21 produces much less “dirty” downforce than the SF1000.

Ferrari also upgraded in areas that are invisible from the outside. The team of tyre engineers was increased, the digital tyre models were improved. The drivers were trained in long meetings with the engineers to read their tyres more accurately, to prepare them even more precisely for quali laps and to conserve them better. If something does go wrong, more efficient analysis tools are now available to detect / correct errors.

Ferrari also put a lot of work into the simulations over the winter. It was quickly clear that with one hour less practice time, less data would come from the track. So a lot depends on how well prepared the engineers are when they travel to the track.

Carlos & Charles: “We had confidence in our car from the first lap and then hardly adjusted it at all. That was the key.”

Ferrari: “We were not much better than usually in Monte Carlo. The others were worse prepared!”

This trend was already seen in the “new” circuits in 2020.