Silverstone like Zandvoort. And no, it obviously has nothing to do with geography, nor with the fact of having mentioned two historic tracks of European motorsport. Almost 12 months later, Ferrari found itself having to repeat what it did in Holland last season, that is, sacrifice a grand prix to return to fight for victory in the following ones.
The introduction of the new aerodynamic package, over the last few races, has eliminated the Reds from both the fight for success and the podium, bringing them to second place and close to Red Bull in fourth, overtaken by both McLaren and Mercedes.
A sudden step backwards that hurt the fans of the Prancing Horse, but also those who work all season, all year round to break the spell that has lasted for almost 20 years and bring the world titles back to Maranello.
The British Grand Prix was the event chosen by Ferrari to carry out the necessary tests to understand where the problem was generated by the new components and the choice seems to have paid off.
“Last year we had exactly the same situation, almost at the same stage of the season: Silverstone, Budapest and Spa. We stopped in Zandvoort. At that point we made a good analysis of the situation and recovered well, because in the following weeks we were in the game with the best”, said Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, at the end of the British race.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Erik Junius
“The difficult thing in this situation is that you don’t have any tests, proper tests, to solve the problem or at least understand it. It’s very difficult for a team to compromise or sacrifice the Friday sessions when you know you’re losing time over the weekend and say: ‘OK, let’s forget about FP1 and FP2 and focus on the medium term’.”
“Believe me, this decision as a team is very difficult because you start the weekend, and it was even worse in Silverstone because of the weather, and it means you put yourself in a difficult situation, but we knew that before. But it was even worse on Saturday morning, because we had to use the wet tyres, but that’s how it went. We made the decision before the weekend and I think it was the right choice.”
Carlos Sainz’s words, also pronounced at the end of the race, also confirmed this theory: “We are finding our way again, we have understood what we did wrong and what was the wrong direction we took. Now we need more time in the tunnel and in the factory to sort out the new package that really brings us performance, and not the problems we have had in the last races”.
Vasseur confirmed that the correlation between wind tunnel simulations and those on the track continues to be excellent. The problem is linked to the simulation in the wind tunnel, where it is not possible to replicate the bouncing and understand if there are components that accentuate or cause the problem when you are on the track. And this aspect has become the current Achilles heel of Ferrari.
“The correlation is good. The correlation regarding aerodynamic load is good. It’s still a question mark for everyone and sometimes bouncing comes out like at Silverstone. It’s quite difficult to have a correlation, because in the wind tunnel you don’t reproduce bouncing. We all have metrics and you can’t predict that there will be more bouncing with one component rather than another, but knowing whether it will have a negative impact on performance is another story.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Erik Junius
“We changed all the aero parts and the bouncing appeared in Spain. There are many solutions to solve the problem. Some compromise performance, others do not by developing a new package. I think we are in a good place now, the next race we will have to do with the updated car and the sooner we do it the better, and we will bring updates that give less bouncing”.
In Maranello, at least under Vasseur’s management, most of the updates on the cars have worked. This year, however, the package created for the first part of the summer has played against the team. Vasseur, however, does not make a drama out of it.
“Over the last 16 months, all the updates we’ve put in have correlated really well with what we’ve done in the wind tunnel. Last year, it was one of the team’s strengths to make small updates and each time it paid off. This time we had a problem, but it’s not like it’s the end of the world.”
Now the ball will pass to the engineers of the Gestione Sportiva, who will have the task of correcting the shot and bringing Ferrari back to where we saw it until the end of the Monaco Grand Prix. But they will have to do it without the resigning Enrico Cardile, now destined to become a member of Aston Martin Racing.
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