Ferrari, first verdicts: from the leap made to the next steps | FP

By Carlo Platella
It is a revitalized Ferrari at the beginning of 2024, with two podiums in as many races and the undisputed status of second force in the field. The SF-24 is a project that started a long time ago, built on the foundations of the lessons learned with the problematic 2023 car. Red Bull and Max Verstappen continue to enjoy an advantage of between 4 and 6 tenths per lap on race pace, a large but not unbridgeable gap. The wind tunnel has been working on the first updates for weeks, but other progress could come from the better tuning of a car that the team is still getting to know.

From 2023 the foundations to restart

With the SF-24 Ferrari develops a new vehicle concept, completing a reconversion undertaken during the past season. The 2023 Rossa served as a forklift to better understand the physics of ground effect and understand the origin of the problems suffered, above all instability, unpredictability and tire degradation. “Driveability has been improvedgiving priority to some aerodynamic aspects over others,” the summary of the technical director Enrico Cardile. “Last year we did a great job in understanding what handling meant in terms of the aerodynamic map.”

The team adapted the simulation methodologies to the findings made. Porpoising is among the phenomena that Ferrari is now able to understand and keep under control, but not the only one. Also improving is the protection of the surface from external turbulence, a quality that can be appreciated in the lower sensitivity to the wind and in the stability found in fast bends. Even more importantly, however, the new simulation techniques match perfectly with the track data.

“The correlation with simulations and the simulator, as well as with the wind tunnel, was found to be sufficiently good, and this is obviously a positive aspect,” the comment immediately after the tests by Matteo Togninalli, head of the track engineers. The work on the simulator has also seen the pilots involved right from the startallowing them to give more direction for the new car than had been done with the 2023 Ferrari.

The new concept

The SF-24 is different both in shape and character compared to the Ferrari 2023, whose slim development margins pushed Maranello to take a new path. “With the previous concept, we had reached the limit of what could be extracted”explains Cardile. “To squeeze out further performance, essentially through the aerodynamics of the surface, it was crucial to undergo a restructuring of the car's architecture, following a direction that is now quite widespread on the grid”.

The new shapes of the bodywork are functional to the different aerodynamics of the floor, the heights from the ground and in general the way of working of the Ferrari 2024, aspects in which the real revolution lies. Pilots report of a different car in character and balance compared to the 2022 F1-75, of which the SF-23 was a natural evolution. What has improved above all is the handling in high-speed corners and the management of tire degradation, as evidenced by Verstappen's delay in race pace in Bahrain, which unlike in the past did not increase during the stints.

Overall, the SF-24 is a more drivable car than the previous one, an advantage which also emerges from the possibility for drivers to attack without being too affected by aerodynamic disturbance and overheating of the tyres. “I love racing, overtaking, being aggressive and attacking.” says Sainz. “With last year's car, it was simply impossible to do. As soon as we were in dirty air, if we pushed a little too hard we overheated the tires and the game was over.” In Bahrain the Spaniard overtook Russell's Mercedes on the track, slowed down by the overheating of the engine, while in Jeddah Leclerc overtook Lando Norris's McLaren, albeit with some difficulty. Maneuvers that the 2023 Red team would hardly have allowed to be carried out.

Potential to be extracted

With the SF-24 Ferrari gets closer to Red Bull, an appreciable gain in race pace rather than in qualifying. However, the awareness of what has been done does not attenuate the Cavallino's desire to definitively close the gap with Max Verstappen's RB20. In addition to the brake problem, one of the limiting factors for the Red in Bahrain was understeer at low speedsthe opposite situation to that of Saudi Arabia, with Leclerc at times having difficulty with oversteer.

It is difficult to establish at the moment how much of these are indications of aerodynamic gaps in the balance and how much of one setup still to be optimized. In fact, if in Bahrain Ferrari missed a pole position within reach due to imperfect execution, between driving, tire rotation and failure to find the slipstream, in Jeddah the Cavallino was not able to make the most of the new tyre, suffering both on the flying lap than at the start of the stint in the race.

The impression is that in Maranello there is still some potential to be extracted working on the set-up to improve the exploitation of the car. A revolutionized car such as the SF-24 takes time before it is properly known. Already in Saudi Arabia, Leclerc's words to Sky suggest that with a different set-up the Cavallino could express something more: “We chose a very specific set-up, which however gave me little confidence, especially in the first sector and braking in sector 2”.

Upcoming updates

Meanwhile in Maranello we are working to bring updates within the first third of the championship. Already at the launch of the car, Enrico Cardile spoke of a new aerodynamic look being developed in a wind tunnel. These are updates planned during the winter, which will likely follow the direction taken by Red Bull during 2023, with the flattening of the side air intakes and the streamlining of the sides to enhance the bottom.

In the meantime, the car will continue to tour the track and around the world. After the Chinese Grand Prix, the fifth round of the season, the team will have a complete mapping of the car available, which will provide an overview of its behavior in a wide range of conditions. The data will allow us to identify the most promising areas to focus on for future updates. The question at that point is how willing Ferrari will be to carry forward a bodywork design inspired by the 2023 Red Bull, from which, however, the world champions have in turn distanced themselves, embarking on a new path considered even more promising. They will depend on the answer the foundations of the 2025 projectwhich sees the light in recent months as a direct evolution of the current car.