F1 | Sainz: “Ferrari working on fixes already for Silverstone”

For different reasons, the last three events have seen a Ferrari under par, going from the victory in Monaco on an undoubtedly atypical circuit, to the role of fourth force. If in Canada one could assume that it was a problem of poor optimization of the setup, especially linked to the changing conditions of the track that had not allowed the Prancing Horse to extract the maximum from the SF-24, in the last two events the problems were different, but also much more worrying.

In Spain, Ferrari showed up with a new aerodynamic package aimed at increasing overall downforce. While this did indeed provide improvements in some areas, on the other hand, as the drivers themselves later admitted in the Austrian weekend, other problems emerged, including above all the return of bouncing in very fast corners where a lot of stability and support of the car is needed.

In Barcelona, ​​this issue was evident in turns 9 and 14, the two fastest sections of the Catalan track, but the problem also arose in Austria, a track where, due to its aero-mechanical characteristics, the phenomenon should have had a lesser impact on performance. Instead, bouncing severely limited the performance of the SF-24 but, above all, forced the team to make compromises in terms of setup to try to counteract the problem.

An aspect that Ferrari is clearly aware of, especially the drivers, because such annoying bounces can create discomfort in the car and, above all, take away confidence in those in the cockpit. On the other hand, as soon as they realized the problem, the engineers immediately began working to understand how to resolve this annoying phenomenon, also because it occurred in one of the most challenging triptychs of the season. In the first races of the year, in fact, bouncing had never occurred even on challenging tracks with lots of fast corners, only to then make its appearance right from Barcelona onwards.

This weekend, Formula 1 will move to Silverstone, perhaps the circuit with the most high-speed corners. Clearly, considering the problems that emerged not only in Barcelona, ​​but also at the Red Bull Ring, these elements suggest that the English weekend could also represent a very difficult test for the SF-24.

Silverstone is in fact full of medium-high speed corners, such as Abbey-Farm, Copse or Stowe: however, on the other side, there is also the Maggots-Becketts-Chapel sequence where, although the first part is generally taken flat out, excessive bouncing could take away the drivers’ confidence, especially due to the set-up of the second part and the passage of the Chapel.

According to Carlos Sainz, however, Ferrari is working hard behind the scenes to understand how to best exploit this package and to make changes that allow it to extract more from the Maranello single-seater even in such a complex scenario. It should not be forgotten, in fact, that there are also some medium and slow speed sections, such as the Village curve or the final chicane, which is why the car cannot be set up with only certain characteristics.

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“I see that the factory is pushing to the max, to understand the problems we have had in the last two weekends and to try to bring a package to Silverstone that allows us to obtain better performance in the high-speed corners, because it is clearly our weak point,” said the Spanish driver at the end of the race, underlining how the problem is not only bouncing, but also the pure performance in the high-speed corners, a theme that had already been observed in other races of the season. Already at the start of the championship, in fact, in the fastest corners the Reds had shown that they had something less not only than Red Bull, but also than McLaren: a gap that was already present, but which was then accentuated by the return of the rebounds.

“Max was much faster, but not only Max, also Mercedes and McLaren were a step ahead of us in those kind of corners. And we know that Silverstone is the king of high speed, so we have to step up. Obviously we want to be competitive. And we will fight with all our strength and try to find everything we can, sorry, to be more competitive there.”

“In the race, it’s less of an issue because the speed in the high-speed corners is lower, so the bounces are less. But yeah, obviously, if you have it in qualifying, you have to set up the car differently for qualifying and then you probably pay the price in the race. It’s not an ideal situation. It doesn’t make you go well in qualifying and it doesn’t make you go well in the race.”

“We’ve talked a lot about rebounds over the last couple of weekends, which shows that it’s been a bit of an issue, but I think there are also other things we need to improve to at least beat Mercedes at Silverstone and try to get closer to McLaren and Red Bull.”