Ignoring the team’s disastrous weekend in Canada, the Spanish GP has become a negative crossroads for Ferrari. Since then, the SF-24 has been fourth-fastest, partly due to upgrades that failed to deliver the desired performance. At the Red Bull Ring, a track that should have been friendlier to Ferrari, both cars struggled with set-up. This was partly due to the Sprint weekend format, which complicated life for the team’s technicians.
FERRARI’S BARCELONA UPGRADES FAIL TO DELIVER – BOUNCING BECOMES UNEXPECTED ISSUE
With the introduction of the second major package in Barcelona, the SF-24 lost its balance and friendly drivability. As we reported after the Spanish GP, the updates from Spain generated more downforce. However, this is also creating unwanted bouncing – which is proving detrimental to performance.
Leclerc and Sainz both confirmed this observation post-race.
The two Maranello standard-bearers still have a car that fails to put heat into its tyres in qualifying. To make things worse, the SF-24 now struggles in the high-speed corners. Inevitably, these issues were exposed at a circuit like Spielberg’s.
Ferrari’s problems were only partially resolved on Saturday, with Sainz and Leclerc taking very different set-up directions. Their deficit to McLaren last weekend was three tenths, indicating that the Scuderia’s initial set-up was incorrect.
“Our performance in the fast corners is exaggeratedly slow compared to our opponents,” underlined an ever-analytical Carlos Sainz.
Harmful bouncing forces engineers to have a smaller setup window and to make compromises, including raising the car off the ground, as in Spain.
Aerodynamic bounce remains a side effect that is difficult to eliminate completely with this generation of cars. However, recent work by the teams, combined with changes to the floor height regulations by the FIA, has minimised this issue.
From this point of view, the teams are all in a “safety zone”, and porpoising, although still present, is not significant.
The famous aerodynamic platform, which we often hear the engineers talking about, makes it clear that to make these Venturi-duct cars work, a perfect combination of vehicle dynamics and downforce is necessary to get the most out of the package available. At this juncture, Ferrari is lacking precisely in this aspect.
NO SPECIFIC UPDATES: FERRARI MUST OPTIMISE EXISTING PACKAGE
There is no shortage of medium and high-speed corners at Silverstone. This weekend, Ferrari will continue working with the package introduced in Barcelona to better understand their existing package.
So far, the team’s improvements are not delivering the desired performance.
In this regard, no significant updates are planned for the English soil.
Instead, upgrade packages should be expected from teams who did not bring any renovation to Spain.
Silverstone will be an important weekend for Ferrari to collect data, weather permitting.
The Silverstone circuit does not have the same elevation changes as last week’s track in Austria. Moreover, the surface is a lot smooth.
Ferrari are searching for a better understanding of their package and a more optimised setup, especially on the mechanical front. Team principal Fred Vasseur has spoken specifically on this issue.
A lack of stability is the fundamental issue the technicians in Maranello are chasing. Because of this, understanding the existing package is the priority – rather than bringing updates.
Furthermore, bringing upgrades this weekend would have been different logistically:
“With the setup in Austria, we made a positive step forward after the sprint.
“Silverstone comes at the right time because having two free practice sessions to optimize the car will certainly be a help for us.”
The minimal bumps in Silverstone should minimise the SF-24’s foundational issues. Maranello’s engineers are optimistic their issues are not fundamentally aerodynamic. Silverstone will be an essential test bed for the Italian outfit to eliminate this problem for the rest of 2024.
