Ferrari boss reveals 2024 secret improvement. Ferrari have come out of the blocks for the 2024 Formula One season as the clearest challenger to the mighty Red Bull Racing dynasty. Despite the world champions claiming 1-2 finishes in the first two races, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was there in Bahrain to pick up the third place podium honours.

Then with Sainz absent in Jeddah due to appendicitis the team it was team mate Charles Leclerc who claimed the final step on the podium while rookie debutant Oli Baerman came home a respectable seventh ahead of both Hamilton and Lando Norris.

 

 

 

Ferrari winter focus changes

With under two weeks to recover from surgery, Carlos was back in his number 55 red car and picked up the pieces from a Red Bull mechanical issue on Verstappen’s car to win the race, easily outpacing his team mate throughout the Grand Prix.

Half way through last season, Ferrari languished well behind Mercedes in second place, but their autumn car improvements clearly meant they had a better car than that of Hamilton’s team and picked up a remarkable four pole positions across the last four F1 events of the year.

Going into the winter the Scuderia boss Fred Vasseur claimed that 95% of the 2024 F1 challenger would be new, creating the impression Ferrari were going back to the drawing board. Yet it now appears it is the Maranello off season project was more about improving the SF-23 than Mercedes ‘revolution’ of a W15.

In recent years, Ferrari’s F1 car design has suited what is known as ‘front limited’ circuit designs. This is where the grip goes away more quickly from the front of the car than the traction created at the rear of the vehicle.

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SF-24 good on both compounds

F1 has visited two of these circuits already in Jeddah and Albert Park, Melbourne and with Sukuza on the list too, the Tifosi can expect another strong weekend from the red team next weekend in Japan.

Other tracks with a front limited characteristic are Miami, Imola, Barcelona, Silverstone, Spa, Zandvoort, Qatar, COTA, and Brazil. Of course three of the next four races will be front limited and the Scuderia should make hay while the sun shines.

Yet the run of circuits which favours Ferrari is not the only reason the team is riding high when compared to its old Mercedes foes, something has changed about the fundamental characteristics of the SF-24 which is making the Scuderia the clear second favourites behind Red Bull at present.

For the first time in recent memory, Ferrari posted long run simulation times in Melbourne during FP2 which eclipsed those of Red Bull Racing. Verstappen failed to deliver a long run of note, but Sergio Perez was clearly behind the Ferrari race pace in what is the most relevant of practice track sessions before qualifying and the Grand Prix.

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Circuits so far suited Ferrari

However, Ferrari have been delivering cars since the dawn of the ground effect era which have good traction in the low speed corners, but this season so far has Bahrain been a rear end traction endurance test, and so the jury is out on Ferrari’s relative performance at this kind of track until the team’s arrive in China and then Monaco.

McLaren too are looking forward to the high speed nature of the Suzuka track which they believe suits the characteristics of their car better than the three the F1 circus has listed so far.

Yet Fred Vasseur is not concerned as he believes Ferrari have unlocked the secret they struggled to understand last season and it is the race pace and tyre management is the big difference.

“We made a huge step forward,” he said. “Perhaps on the pace of one lap, it’s true that we were not nowhere last year on one-lap pace.

“But where we made a huge step I think it’s more on the consistency between the two compounds. Between one stint and the other one, the car is much easier to drive.”

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DRS rule change makes it harder for Max

With DRS now enabled this year after the first lap, the weapon that was Max Verstappen’s 12 pole positions in 2023 has been neutered to a certain degree. The world champion when on pole this year now has just one lap to make a one second gap to his closest on track rival, before the DRS becomes available.

The better balanced SF-24 across the range of Pirelli rubber has made it “much easier to read also for our drivers, and by the way much easier to develop. And it’s probably the biggest step that we did compared to last year, to have something that we cannot easily manage, but at least have a good read of the car quite early into the weekend.”

Its also easier this year for the drivers to look after their tyres according to Vasseur without seeing the drop offs towards the end of a stint which epitomised Ferrari’s previous season.

“What is true is that last year, the main issue was the fact that the car was very difficult to drive into the race,” said Vasseur. “Then you had to do a step [in the pace], you were doing mistakes, damaging the tyres. And then it’s kind of negative spiral.

“This year, it’s much easier I think to read for them, to know where is the limit, and to stay just a bit below. And when you have to go to tyre management, it’s much, much easier.

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New Pirelli compound for Japan

“They are much more under control than they were last year, when they were a bit in the survival mode, and by this you are killing the tyres quite quickly.”

Pirelli introduced a new tyre compound for this season which sits in between the old C1 (now C0) and in Japan it will be the C1, C2 and C3 which the drivers use in dry weather running.

This in effect means the tyres are a step softer than last year, which will test the all new SF-23 and its tyre handling capabilities. Further in Japan, each driver will receive an extra two sets of tyres for a Pirelli test of a new C2 tyre, which if successful while be homologated for next season.

“For the first two free practice sessions, each driver will have two additional sets of tyres, compared to the usual 13 sets per weekend. This test is part of a development programme that was recently defined for 2024 and will continue with a new C4 compound to be tested on track during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend,” a Pirelli statement revealed.

New evidence F1 is in trouble

 

 

 

Russell now criticised following Alonso penalt

One of Bernie Ecclestone’s pet Formula One hates was a revised classified race order issued from the stewards a long time after there chequered flag has fallen. The former F1 supremo lobbied the FIA repeatedly to ensure any penalties discovered post the end of a race were handed out in grid drops at the next Grand Prix.

Part of the reason is post race sanctions do not fully remedy the crime of one driver towards another, particularly if the injured party as a result fails to finish the Grand Prix. This was the case down under when George Russell in his Mercedes was chasing down Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for P6 last time out in Melbourne…. READ MORE