F1 | Ferrari: there is a reason for the decline of the SF-24 in China

We saw an involuted Ferrari, overtaken in the values ​​expressed in China by McLaren, even if neither team brought any technical evolutions to Shanghai. In the Sprint Race the red cars managed to precede the MCL38s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, while in the Grand Prix the SF-24s never had the pace to worry the Englishman's papaya who finished in second place.

The Scuderia did not meet the expectations of the day before, given that the Ferrari drivers themselves implied not only a competitive car, but also one capable, perhaps, of coming closer to the Red Bulls. The operation was successful for McLaren and, for the first time in the season, a red car did not finish on the podium.

The question to ask is quite simple: what was done on the SF-24s between the Saturday morning race and the afternoon qualifying? Ferrari lost competitiveness between the Sprint event and the GP, at least in the direct comparison with the McLarens (Oscar Piastri, less brilliant than usual, would have ended up ahead of the reds had he not been the victim of Lance Stroll's strike during the restart from the first safety car).

And Lando Norris himself after the race said he was surprised to have been clearly ahead of the Ferraris, given that in his heart he imagined taking a sound pay from the SF-24 (he spoke of 35″ seen in the simulations!). Not only was he ahead of Leclerc and Sainz, but he also left Sergio Perez behind in the other Red Bull RB20.

Someone, therefore, may say that McLaren has grown and Lando has done his best to bring out the oranges, but the analysis would not be complete if we did not look at why the reds did not extract all the potential they had available.

The feeling is that when the parc fermé reopened, the technicians followed the instructions of the drivers who had complained during the Sprint Race that, when they were in a train, they did not have the necessary speed to risk an overtaking with the DRS. And one suspects that there was a temptation to change the set-up to slightly unload the red tire, perhaps not having taken into account that with the hard compound, in particular, the SF-24s would have gone into crisis by not being able to bring the necessary energy to put the tires in the right temperature window.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

In Maranello, therefore, they would have taken a risk that didn't pay off, so Leclerc and Sainz had to build a race that was played in defence: at the start, but in general at every restart from the Safety Car, we saw the reds suffer for the inability to immediately find the right step. The fact that Charles managed to make the pit stop (lap 21) outside the window recommended by Pirelli, to get to compete in a race with just one stop (with the mediums he would have gone longer if there had not been neutralization for the stop of Valtteri Bottas with the smoking Ferrari powwr unit on the Sauber C44) certainly exacerbated the problem by having to exploit a set of whites for 35 laps.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

It is possible, therefore, that the Maranello team was not able to extract the best from the SF-24, but it is equally true that the moment has now come in which it is essential to begin the evolution of the red, anticipating some elements of the development package in Miami updates that were announced for Imola.

Red Bull, Aston Martin but also Haas, Alpine, Sauber and Racing Bulls have already brought important news and not just details. McLaren will change face in Miami, while Ferrari and Mercedes were waiting for the European debut to introduce the evolutions.

The third-force slide in China was dismissed as a blunder and not the sign of a change in technical values. Good to know…