The first day in Japan can undoubtedly be defined as solid for Scuderia Ferrari. The SF-24 performed well during the morning session of free practice. Carlos Sainz finished in third position, just two tenths behind Max Verstappen, giving a first glimpse of the car’s competitiveness even in the first sector, where last year there was a huge gap between the Red Bull RB19 and the SF-23.
Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, finished a bit further back, in sixth position, half a second behind the three-time Formula 1 world champion. The Monegasque driver wanted to refine his qualifying lap in the afternoon session, which was completely influenced by the light rain that fell at Suzuka. For this reason, only a few adventurous drivers ventured out on track with intermediate tires, before switching to slicks towards the end, but without receiving any significant feedback.
A real shame, because at the end of the first session, a mini long run was completed, in which the Ferrari SF-24 seemed to dominate its opponents, including Red Bull. Let’s not get carried away with easy enthusiasm; we cannot make any judgments based on a handful of laps. For this reason, the afternoon session was eagerly anticipated by fans and professionals alike, in order to have a clearer indication of what we might expect in Sunday’s race, but everything has been postponed for the final free practice session on Saturday morning.
With a Ferrari SF-24 that looks decently competitive, Carlos Sainz has tried to cast doubts on Red Bull from the very first session, placing just two tenths behind Max Verstappen and only a few thousandths behind Sergio Perez. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted at the end of FP1 how much closer Scuderia Ferrari is, and if we consider what happened just a few months ago at Suzuka, where the SF-23 lagged 45 seconds behind in the race, the step forward made this year seems truly enormous. The Ferrari that caught more attention in FP1, however, was that of Charles Leclerc: the Monegasque driver did finish half a second behind Verstappen, but in the mini long run performed a few minutes before the checkered flag, he set some rather significant times, especially when compared to those of the Dutchman, giving him an average of one second per lap on the same hard tire.
Now, it’s clear that no conclusion can be drawn from three/four laps, but the degradation, an important factor at Suzuka, seemed almost negligible, on par with that of the RB20. Regarding lap times, we believe that Charles Leclerc might have been a bit more on engine power than usual, also because we need to justify the one-second difference per lap compared to Max Verstappen, a gap that we honestly don’t believe exists.
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The Ferrari SF-24 car arrived at the 5.807-kilometre Suzuka International Racing Course with “high lateral grip” in the first day of track action ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, with the Maranello technicians opting for the same rear wing specification used in previous three World Championship events so far. This component proves adaptable on tracks with profoundly different characteristics. The engineers at Scuderia Ferrari aimed to optimize the car around this specification to reduce the car’s sensitivity to different aerodynamic setups, a lesson learned at a high price during the previous Formula 1 season.
The work on Friday primarily focused on the early free practice sessions. Ferrari chose the Hard compound similarly to Red Bull, a compound that offers consistent performance for several laps, enabling more efficient setup work. The SF-24 car showed immediate solidity, and the engineers were able to confirm, in general, the setup studied on the simulator back in Maranello during the previous week. The red car exhibited a certain degree of oversteer, with the rear end tending to unsettle during cornering. However, this behavior is useful for the drivers to achieve mid-corner rotation if managed correctly.
The area that still requires work concerns directional changes. The front end is a strong point of the Italian car, but when it comes to transferring load rapidly, the rear struggles to keep up. On the other hand Red Bull is well-prepared in this aspect, displaying agility particularly in the first sector of the Suzuka circuit, enabling them to maintain apex speeds without excessively reducing velocity. Although we also noticed a certain lack of rear-end grip on the RB20, generally, the Austrian car offers superior lateral grip compared to Ferrari’s SF-24.
At this stage, regarding the race perspective, a precise consideration is highly useful for the overall assessment. Bearing in mind the energy profile imposed on the tires at this circuit, the cars cannot afford to push to the maximum during cornering phases. Consequently, over long distances, cornering speeds will inevitably be lower. As a result, the load present on the Formula 1 cars is optimized for Sundays, where average cornering speeds will be lower.
Both Red Bull and Ferrari use a medium – medium-high downforce configuration to ensure a good level of efficiency in managing top speeds. Neither car seemed to struggle to bring the tires up to temperature, as observed on other circuits. Typically, a lot of effort is put into brake work to generate temperature, but at Suzuka, with sustained outlaps, achieving the optimal window on both axles is easily possible.
Ferrari SF-24: Stability in the snake section, agility lacking in directional changes.
In comparing the micro sectors, we can highlight some interesting aspects. Firstly, Turn 1 belongs to Ferrari, a double apex corner where the SF-24 is very agile. However, in the snake section, although the red car remains competitive, it struggles with directional changes compared to Red Bull. The SF-24 is forced to recover at Turn 7, where the intrinsic characteristics of the Italian car, if well exploited, should allow the two Ferrari drivers to claw back some time against the Austrian cars.
At Turn 9, the RB20 has a lot of lateral grip, while the SF-24 single-seater manages to gain on entry. The same applies to Turn 11, a slow hairpin. Exiting the Hairpin, Red Bull manages to make a difference in traction, which is crucial, particularly for the car from Maranello, which is no longer at the top as in past years. Turns 14-15 belong to the Maranello team, while on the straights, the blue racing-colored car is a bit faster, although comparing the top speeds of the two cars, the data is almost the same: around 320 kilometers per hour for both.
Regarding Mercedes, the German Formula 1 car seems to perform well in high-speed corners, having chosen the right path to find high-speed load stability. In the first sector corner sequence, they show good balance. Nevertheless, we need to await confirmation, as their performance is quite sensitive to tire temperatures. Even a few degrees of difference in track surface temperature creates various problems in maintaining the optimal operating window.
As for the low-speed cornering phase, such as Turn 11, where the car generally becomes unpredictable, we notice a certain lack of mechanical grip at the apex. The strength of the W15 remains in the straights, as we can easily see in the telemetry analysis regarding the micro sectors based on data collected from the first free practice session at the Suzuka circuit. Furthermore, the following image offers us the possibility to understand how the two McLarens could catch up with the red car in the upcoming sessions. To achieve this, the team led by Andrea Stella must improve in the second and third sectors, where they fail to find a competitive pace.
Conversely, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell must do better precisely in the first sector, where they have balance but are not effective due to a lack of speed at the apex. These latter two cars under review are trying to “build” the lap differently, also considering the race and the optimal load for tire management. McLaren wants to find performance considering that a balance more shifted towards the front-end, on Formula 1 tracks like Suzuka, undoubtedly can offer some significant advantages.
Source: Alessandro Arcari and Niccoló Arnerich for FUnoanalisitecnica
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