Ferrari seeks confirmation in Montreal after Charles Leclerc’s victory at the Monaco GP. The SF-24 will have the car adapted to the Canadian track which has stop-and-go characteristics with very fast sections interspersed with challenging braking sections that put the braking system to the test.
The Scuderia prepared the race on the track dedicated to Gilles Villenueve on the island of Notre Dame with great meticulousness. The fact that is different from last year is that the surface with many bumps has been reasphalted so the resurfacing could have been a problem for Red Bull who has to face another circuit that is not very suitable for the characteristics of the RB20, which is affected by the passing of the curbs when they have to being attacked for looking for time.
Fred Vasseur, team principal who is very motivated after first and third place in the Principality, makes no proclamations, but suggests that Ferrari will once again be in the game, in full battle for the top positions…
“If we take a look at the last three events, Miami, Imola, Monaco, we went through different layouts and different types of asphalt, but in the end we confirmed that they were all within a tenth of a second.”
“I can’t say that we dominated in Monaco, but if you look at the general picture McLaren, Red Bull and us, we are always in a tenth, this is due to the variation in the type of track, compounds and asphalt. Montreal is a very fast circuit and we will probably see something different, there are a lot of curbs and a high top speed, but I would say we have a good feeling before Canada.”
Ferrari SF-24 comparison between the victorious red one in Melbourne and that of Monte Carlo
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
The simulations indicate a competitive Ferrari in Quebec: on paper a medium load aerodynamic setup is needed, but the tendency is to aim for a medium-low load wing configuration, so we expect a rear wing and the last flap of the previous one revised for this appointment.
The medium wing used in the first seven GPs was suitable for the old aerodynamic configuration: we will find out in Montreal what Enrico Cardile’s engineers decided, returning to the command deck after the motorbike accident which had caused fractures in his ribs. The 49-year-old Tuscan technician, obviously, is on everyone’s lips after the preview from Motorsport.com, but there has not yet been any internal communication on his more than possible change of shirt, to join Aston Martin.
It is interesting to underline that operations in the Racing Department are constantly changing: the single-seater decision-making processes have changed with simulation work (combined between CFD, wind tunnel and simulator) which leads to more choice options and then converges on the final solutions. The objective, in the logic of cost limits and in the desire to bring to the track only solutions that give a performance contribution, is to reduce the parts to be validated in the wind tunnel, with increasingly effective screening work at the CFD, a department which is been strengthened by introducing investigation methodologies brought by recent arrivals from outside.
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