Ferrari returns home from Barcelona certainly not satisfied with the result obtained at Montmelò. The fifth and sixth places of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, peppered with an infighting that certainly didn’t help either of them, are a perfect snapshot of the difficulties encountered by the Red Team during the Catalan weekend.
Yet Ferrari showed up at the track located a few steps from Granollers with some innovations, aimed at improving the performance of the SF-24s. Bellies with a more profiled undercut to increase the air flow to the bottom, modified flow diverters at the bottom entrance and, still talking about the floor, also a modification to the terminal part in front of the rear wheels and the extractor.
In short, they certainly didn’t sit back and watch in Maranello, but the track gave some negative signals. At the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, Frédéric Vasseur instead gave a different picture of the situation in which Ferrari found itself: the innovations worked, but it is probable that the real fruits can be reaped in just under a week, at the Red Bull Ring, home of the Austrian Grand Prix.
“We are satisfied with the numbers we have seen regarding the updates. First of all, everyone is improving and it is not that if you bring something you will certainly be in front, but it is certain that if you don’t bring something, you will fall behind,” said the Ferrari team principal.
“Everyone brings new parts every 2-3 races and sometimes we work on the aerodynamics and that’s it, but we must not forget that not only that sector is developed. Sometimes, then we need one or two races to get the best out of the package that We have seen a sort of convergence of performance linked to the structure in the last 12 months.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“Next week we will use the car better. We have often seen the new features work in the following race compared to the debut. We have also seen it in other teams. Sometimes it was in the following race that everything ended up working well. Now, on the other hand, everyone evolutionary packages are smaller than they were 24 months ago.”
If the upgrades were somehow promoted, what went wrong with the SF-24s in Barcelona? Vasseur, rather than on the new material, implied that what was lacking was good tire management during part of the qualifying laps on Saturday, precisely where Ferrari spent its weekend more than uphill.
“I think the most important thing in Barcelona is to make good use of the tyres. I don’t want to go into details and give information, but it’s about maintaining the potential of the tires throughout the lap in the different corners and on Saturday we lost something in this sense, because we were 2 tenths behind McLaren and Red Bull.”
“In Barcelona there are 14 corners and we didn’t lose a cent in every corner. We lost just over a tenth per lap. For most of the lap, we made almost the same time as Norris.”
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