F1 | Ferrari: Fiorano's optimism seeks confirmation in Bahrain

The Ferrari SF-24 has been sent to Bahrain: the only pre-season test session will begin on Wednesday and, finally, we will have the perception of how much the winter break may have changed the values ​​on the field with the debut of the new single-seaters.

All attention is focused on the Sakhir track which will be called to give the first judgments on the 2024 cars: the presumed convergence towards the lines of the Red Bull RB19, the car that dominated the 2023 world championship with Max Verstappen, is there was less than one might have imagined.

With the new red car, the Scuderia has corrected the errors that had affected the performance of the SF-23 and seems to have put a very consistent car on the track. Fast? It's obviously too early to say, but the two hundred kilometers of last Wednesday's filming day went smoothly without the slightest hitch, a sign that the preparatory work on the dynamic bench was fruitful in starting development on the track on the right foot.

The SF-24, therefore, presented itself with other credentials compared to the single-seaters that had preceded it the year before: all the indicators are decidedly more positive, confirming the more smiling faces of the drivers and technicians.

It's not really the case to talk about performances (we'll expect those in the three days of Bahrain in direct comparison with the competition), but to give strength to the consistency of the red we can add that the pace with Pirelli demo tires was decidedly better than that of the SF-23 if only for the fact that the porpoising was not seen, just as the chronic tendency to understeer that had characterized last year's car was not observed.

The objective of providing drivers with an “easy” single-seater that is easy to drive and less critical in setting up seems to have been achieved: the SF-24 is gentler on the tyres, a sign that the new layout (longer chassis and gearbox short) will help make the redhead more sincere. Someone outside the nets also took some times: no record was sought on the Fiorano track with little fuel in the tank, but some passes were seen that were six to eight tenths better than the disastrous debut on the home track last year.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Davide Cavazza

There is no need to sound the bass drum, because the results of February 2023 were anything but encouraging and the problems emerge when the car is pushed to the limit, but the indications for now are truly comforting: Ferrari is aligned with those who were the project targets.

Will they be enough to challenge the Red Bull RB20 with its shapes so different from the car that dictated the law with 22 successes out of 23 GPs? Obviously we don't know, but we will have a more precise response this week with the tests that will begin to give indications on the potential of cars that were created with very different solutions.

Ferrari SF-24: here is the release of the new “by pass duct” compared to the original

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

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