Wind sensitivity problem: key aspect Ferrari needs to work on in view of 2024. Ferrari has to fix its wind sensitivity problem for the 2024 F1 season.

From the comments of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and especially from the behavior of the SF-23 car on the track during the previous year, it was evident that one of the critical factors the 2023 Ferrari had to deal with was the wind. The wind made it impossible to understand the car in corners, with cascading effects on the driver’s confidence in the single-seater.

It’s a problem that Scuderia Ferrari still needs to fully resolve in view of the 2024 Formula 1 campaign, but its source lies in the aerodynamics of the car, as recently explained by Technical Director Enrico Cardile.

Enrico Cardile’s comments
“The influence of the wind on the performance of the SF-23 is due to the aerodynamic characteristics of the car. Every car loses downforce in corners. This has to do with the turbulence generated by the front wheels, depending on the force with which they are turned. This loss varies from car to car, and the wind is only a multiplier of this problem,” the Ferrari Technical Director explained in a recent interview for German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

“The simple rule is: the more the car loses downforce with the front wheels, the more it is subject to the wind. And this also affects the driver’s confidence. It’s an aspect we need to work on next year. In ideal conditions, we weren’t that far from Red Bull. But if, with a certain type of corner, there’s wind, the driver loses confidence in the car, and we are doubly penalized. The driver doesn’t know when and how the wind will hit him and in which corners this phenomenon is more pronounced.” – he pointed out.

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A Fresh Start
According to Enrico Cardile, to address the wind problem at its root, it is necessary to modify the aerodynamic concepts of the car. In 2024, the car will undergo – according to the Italian aerodynamicist – significant changes, to the point of considering the next Formula One season a breakaway, where the path started in 2022 at the beginning of the ground-effect era will no longer be followed.