F1 | Ferrari: The SF-24 saves tyres and is not just designed for Monza

Ferrari was masterful at Monza: Charles Leclerc sealed the Scuderia’s 20th victory in the temple of speed. This success has a special taste because the Maranello team, supported by a record crowd for the Brianza circuit (335 thousand spectators over the weekend), revealed some characteristics of the team, the driver and the car that could help the Prancing Horse emerge from a phase of the season in which the Scuderia was a bit of a rollercoaster.

Leclerc returned to the crowd bath on the top step of the podium five years after the one in 2019: the victory with the SF-24 has a completely different taste. Ferrari did not have to rely on the “big engine” to which it had clung in the past to straighten out lean years or to make them triumphant.

The Scuderia protagonist in Monza prepared the party carefully (it was curious to see the team principal, Fred Vasseur, playing the “naughty” at the souvenir photo in the pit lane, with a bottle of Ferrari Trento with which he washed whoever was in his vicinity) and didn’t make any mistakes.

The question that arises spontaneously is: but did this Ferrari fire all its bullets in the Italian GP and should we prepare to see it again as the third or fourth force in the next appointments? The calendar offers two more appointments in sequence, Baku and Singapore, which, at least on paper, should be favorable to the red. And, then, it is legitimate to ask whether the Scuderia seen in Monza could repeat itself in the next GPs.

We had given particular emphasis to the floor that was supposed to correct the SF-24’s hopping: the objective was achieved, with a solution that does not add a load point, but makes the car more driveable for the drivers, offering them more confidence to extract the maximum potential of the red. One might have thought that the rest of the substantial update package had been designed only for Monza and, instead, it is emerging that this is not exactly the case.

Ferrari SF-24: here is the new fund

Photo by: George Piola

The nose, more tapered and hollowed out in the lower part, rather than the engine hood, more tapered under the terminal part of the bazooka, are interventions that have changed the trend of some flows, useful for making the SF-24 more flexible in its strategies.

The new asphalt of Monza, decidedly more wearing for the tyres, advised McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes to change the race tactic from one to two stops. Ferrari, on the other hand, started from home with the propensity to make only one stop and managed to maintain this belief, betting that even with the choice of having less aerodynamic load (the front and rear wings were specifically designed for the Monza straights), the SF-24 would be able to enhance the ability to preserve the tyres from wear, fighting the onset of graining.

Ferrari SF-24: here is the unloaded rear wing of the Italian GP

Photo by: George Piola

The team bet and the driver believed in it: Leclerc gave a crystal clear example of his competitive maturity. No one ever questioned that he was fast, but the Monegasque revealed that he has now become a master in managing the tires. This characteristic of the red had already emerged in Zandvoort and was exalted and sublimated in Monza.

So, if it is true that the SF-24 will not be a “grasshopper” that jumps on bumps and in long lean corners, despite being a car with less downforce than some of its rivals, it could still have its say both in Baku and in Singapore (where Carlos Sainz won last year).

And, while in McLaren, despite the incomprehensible papaya regulation, the two drivers are battling it out without holding back, Ferrari can count on the full collaboration of the two drivers: the Spaniard, now with his bags in hand to make room for Lewis Hamilton, contributed to Leclerc’s success by slowing down Oscar Piastri’s return.

This Ferrari, in short, gives itself time until Singapore to understand what its role could be in this championship. If, as it might seem, the Monza package will not be limited to the temple of speed, but will be flexible to work also in the next appointments, then the Scuderia could become a variable in the Constructors’ Championship which is a championship read in the dualism between Red Bull and McLaren.