Wanting to generalize, we'll see who copied the Red Bull 2023 best. Wanting to be a little more practical: it will be better to (also) invent something different and possibly original, because Verstappen's 2024 single-seater will certainly not be the one from last year, and well it will hardly be faster. Which, given that in terms of race pace Max was at least half a second per lap fastest of everyone at least until Monza, in view of next week's Bahrain GP, moves the bar even higher. And just copying would therefore mean starting off ready to go.
24 hours after the 2024 single-seaters hit the track simultaneously, albeit with test programs that will necessarily be different if only to muddy the waters, it is clear that the reflections triggered by the presentations of the top teams at the beginning of the month are now necessarily overcome. . It's true: both Mercedes and Ferrari (in strict '23 ranking order) have embraced macro-features such as the bellies that descend more or less dramatically downwards towards the rear suspension area. And this is undoubtedly a process that harks back to Red Bull, winner of 21 out of 22 Grands Prix before the winter. But there is much more to both single-seaters.
The silver arrows, to begin with, show a design change that clearly underlines the carte blanche left to the new head of engineering James Allison, brutally promoted to take up this role by Toto Wolff now burned by two Mercedes always beaten in the last two seasons . And this was never a hybrid that began in 2014 and was dominated by the Silver Arrows from that year until the end of 2020.
Toto then chose to make his way with the TNT. The W15, which will see Hamilton dressed as Mercedes for the last time before moving to Ferrari in 2025, marks a clear change in technical paradigm. The moving back of the cockpit, and therefore of the pilot's position, is perhaps the biggest change shown. The rest are many small details that are very different from 2023: shorter gearbox and rear suspension with an unchanged scheme; front suspension which was even surprising at the vernissage for its double arm, a choice which later turned out to be a mockery also because the regulations would not allow it.
Unlike this decisive turning point, Ferrari has instead turned off the path of refinement. And the reason is clear: practically always slower in the race, the 2023 Rossa often managed to fight the Red Bull on equal terms on the qualifying flying lap. Leclerc's five front rows with two stacks in the last five races of the year speak for themselves, as do Sainz's pole positions in Monza and Singapore where he then achieved the only non-Red Bull success of the entire season. It was the excessively high degradation of the tires during the race that held back the Ferraris, and it is in this direction that the red evolution is pointing for the world championship starting today.
The SF-24 also features a shorter gearbox and unchanged suspension layout (push-rod at the front, pull-rod at the rear), but with many small changes, not all of which are visible to the naked eye. The frame is longer and this should free the rear axle from certain obstacles, on paper improving the working capacity of the tyres. But the difference from philosophy is clear: if in Brackley they chose revolution, in Maranello the tactic is that of small steps, optimization of optimization, according to that theory of constant refinement, of maximum exploitation of every condition and mechanism, which is exactly Fred Vasseur's style.
Okay: we didn't want to venture into deep technical analyzes here, for which it is better to rely on specialists. What we wanted was to try to read the news from a more philosophical perspective: we hope we succeeded.
NB: we have not paid attention to McLaren, where even the pragmatic approach of boss Andrea Stella favors small continuous improvements over revolution. The single-seater was the number one protagonist of the second half of 2023 in terms of progress. Let's be careful…
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