Work resumes in Maranello: engineers led by Diego Tondi to bring aero updates amid rear-end instability. Ferrari is bringing some aerodynamic updates after summer break.

It was a working Sunday after the two-week summer vacation. Ferrari begins the second half of the season with the hope of turning around a season that has confined them to the role of the fourth-best team, a position that feels uncomfortably tight.

The dynamics of the F1 world championship have changed with the summer heat: even though Max Verstappen leads the championship by 78 points over Lando Norris, it’s widely believed that McLaren is now the benchmark car. The MCL38 is considered the universal car that adapts best to the various tracks on the calendar, while the Red Bull RB20, which dominated the start of the season, seems to have lost its crown despite having the three-time world champion.

Ferrari was supposed to be the challenger to the Milton Keynes team, but just when they had planned to catch up with the reigning champions, they began to slip back: currently, they are third in the Constructors’ standingsp, but it’s clear that Mercedes has also turned a corner, solving its issues, and the W15 has collected three wins with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, making the SF-24 seem the least competitive among the top four.

The situation is far from rosy, even though Charles Leclerc inherited a third-place finish at Spa-Francorchamps (after the disqualification of the winner Russell) that boosted the team’s morale. At the Dutch GP, Max’s stronghold, the Scuderia seeks a resurgence ahead of Monza.

Diego Tondi’s aerodynamic team has reportedly identified the area of the car that caused the rear instability, making the SF-24 suddenly “nervous” and therefore difficult to control at the limit. Despite the FIA-imposed restrictions, Maranello was able to make modifications to the underbody that should give the drivers the confidence to achieve results more in line with the team’s expectations.

Last year, Zandvoort represented one of the lowest points of the 2023 Formula 1 season: the Dutch race was treated as a test to break out of a negative slump. The benefits of the work done in the Netherlands were seen later, with the car showing the true potential of the SF-23, a car born with too many flaws.

The feeling is that Maranello believes it has overcome the most challenging moment before the race that reopens hostilities, and the hope is that this will be evident, even at Max’s home track.

The Ferrari heading to the Netherlands is still very cautious about making predictions, but the decision to direct the airflow differently toward the diffuser should ensure the necessary aerodynamic load to tackle a challenging circuit with its banked turns 3 and 14, which require a specific setup. While they reduce lateral tire strain, they significantly increase vertical load.

The simulator data has been encouraging: will the track confirm it?