By Carlo Platella
The season starts again with the Red Bull-Verstappen duo well ahead of everyone, but there are many encouraging signs from their rivals, starting from Ferrari. The Scuderia from Maranello equals the leap of the world champions from last season, quantified on the Bahrain track in 2 seconds per lap on hard tires and in race conditions. The new SF-24 presents progress especially in the management of tire degradation and temperature, qualities that allow Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to attack with fewer fears than in 2023
Aggressive little horse
AND a Ferrari on the attack the one seen in Bahrain. Once the brake problem was managed, in the final stage Leclerc attacked George Russell's Mercedes, while his teammate became even more of a protagonist. Initially, Carlos Sainz overtook the Monegasque's Ferrari twice, before and after the stop, to also get the better of Russell's Silver Arrow and launch himself in pursuit of Perez's Red Bull. A clearly different picture compared to the one commented in 2023.
“I remember the last time I was attacking last year was in Austria”, Sainz's reflections. “In the remaining races all I could do was manage. I had to look in the mirrors and moderate my pace, the opportunities to go and attack were very few. I love racing, overtaking, being aggressive and attacking. With last year's car, it was simply impossible to do. As soon as we were in dirty air, if we pushed a little too hard we overheated the tires and the game was over.”
SF-24 less sensitive
The ease of overtaking for a car is the result of combination of three qualities. One of these is straight-line speed, a quality confirmed on the new Ferrari but which in reality was not lacking even on the previous car. The second is the superiority in pace over its rivals, an aspect that in 2023 was very circumstantial for the Red. The main shortcoming for the latest Ferrari, however, was the excessive sensitivity in traveling behind another single-seater, a condition that led it to easily go out of the optimal operating window.
For the 2024 project in Maranello, much attention was paid to reducing aerodynamic sensitivity to external conditions. Bahrain confirms the least disturbance linked to the wind, a phenomenon which amplifies the orientation of the car with respect to that of the air flow. Not surprisingly, the Ferrari 2024 is a car too more stable and competitive in medium-high speed corners. The aerodynamic robustness of the Red also emerges when traveling in the slipstream of another car.
Dirty air now leads to less load loss and slipping, thus limiting tire overheating. Not only does the SF-24 seen in Bahrain show superior pace to the Mercedes, but it can also put it to good use going forward attack without losing excessive performance from aerodynamics and tires. It is also indicative how Sainz manages to push for a long time and maintain a close distance from Perez's Red Bull at a gap of 2-3 seconds, enough to suffer from the aerodynamic disturbance, but no longer to overheat the tires and to give up the step.
Qualification is the strong point
The aerodynamic robustness and the better kindness on the tires of the Ferrari 2024 do not come at the expense of its incisiveness on the flying lap, a great asset of the 2023 project. Sainz comments: “I continue to believe that the qualification is one of the main strengths of our car, so I think we will still qualify ahead of what perhaps is our real position, but at least we don't degrade or defend ourselves like the damned like we did last year.” The new skills in tire management and the ability to attack in the race represent a positive sign for Ferrari also in view of 2026, when the new regulations will debut, the basic physics of which however will remain similar to the current ones.
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