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Coming in second place has always been seen as a disappointment for a team of Ferrari’s magnitude and ambition. Therefore, their current position as the best of the rest behind Red Bull in 2024 is not cause for celebration.
However, it is important to remember that success takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Maranello wasn’t either. Despite their illustrious history and abundant resources, Ferrari went through a record-breaking 15-year championship drought in 2023.
Nevertheless, there are promising signs that Ferrari will break this record in 2024. This serves as proof that the team’s issues cannot be solved with quick fixes or immediate answers, but rather through gradual long-term improvement.
The fact that Ferrari has developed a car that is the second fastest in Formula 1 speaks volumes about their chances of catching up to Red Bull in the future.
Here is an analysis of what Ferrari has improved on and what they still need to work on:
In terms of speed on a single lap, the Ferrari SF-24 is consistently the second fastest car on average. In Bahrain, Charles Leclerc even set the fastest lap of the weekend in Q2, although he couldn’t replicate that performance to secure pole position.
However, in three out of the four races so far, Ferrari has been the leading non-Red Bull team in qualifying.
Furthermore, in the Suzuka race, McLaren’s driver Lando Norris qualified ahead of the Ferraris, but both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished ahead of him in the race, using different strategies. This maintained Ferrari’s perfect record of being the best non-Red Bull team in races this year. It is worth noting that this achievement comes on a track where McLaren had previously outperformed Ferrari.
Although Sainz’s victory in Melbourne was partly helped by Max Verstappen’s brake issues, Ferrari still believed they had a chance to challenge Red Bull even without this advantage.
With a race win and four other podiums, Ferrari currently comfortably holds the second position in the constructors’ championship, with 120 points.
Their current score is the second highest they have achieved at this stage of the season in the last ten years, only four points behind their position in 2022, when they posed a real threat to Red Bull’s championship hopes – albeit temporarily. It is also higher than the early stages of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel’s unsuccessful title campaigns.
These results serve as evidence that Ferrari is on an upward trajectory and has addressed some fundamental weaknesses. They are currently trailing Red Bull by 21 points in the constructors’ standings.
One of Ferrari’s main goals was to improve tire management, as their cars were wearing out tires too quickly since the beginning of 2022. This led to a significant gap between their strong qualifying performances and weaker race pace.
In the two previous seasons, Ferrari secured 19 pole positions but only managed to convert five of them into race wins. This was often due to tire management difficulties, which they have worked on this year.
Although Ferrari is still not at the same level as Red Bull in terms of tire management, they have made significant progress. As Charles Leclerc pointed out, they still face challenges on tracks where tire degradation is high.
However, this improvement allows Ferrari to be more aggressive in races and provides them with greater strategic flexibility.
According to Carlos Sainz, “We have improved in all aspects, especially in race pace. It also allows us to have more strategic flexibility, which we didn’t have last year. It allows me to push forward in races instead of constantly looking in the mirrors and relying on strategy to overtake opponents. That was not possible at any time last year.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur stated that their tire issues are now “well under control” after Leclerc successfully completed a one-stop strategy with a 25-lap stint on medium tires in Suzuka – the longest anyone has gone on the C2 tire.
Sainz attributes much of his strong start in the 2024 season to Ferrari’s overall improvement. He emphasizes the importance of having a car that allows him to push harder, maintain better positions in dirty air, and use different strategies to his advantage.
Ferrari’s progress in tire management can be attributed to significant improvements in the aerodynamics of their car. By addressing the aerodynamic instabilities that caused excessive tire wear and made the car unstable in turbulent air, Ferrari has taken big steps towards improving their overall performance.
The sensitivity of the car’s aerodynamics during corners, known as yaw, was a major issue affecting the drivers’ confidence and the car’s stability. While the car behaved well within a narrow window, the drivers never knew when the rear could snap out. This forced the team to introduce understeer in the car’s setup to mitigate this issue, which particularly bothered Leclerc. Although there was progress in the second half of the previous season, the problem persisted.
The root cause of this problem was Ferrari’s decision to adopt an external airflow concept for its aerodynamics in early 2022, as opposed to the focus on downward airflow that other teams had adopted. Drivers constantly complained about the unpredictability of the car in 2023, but this improved significantly in 2024.
The treatment of the side air intakes on the SF-24 played a significant role in this improvement. Although Ferrari still needs to catch up to other teams in terms of developing this approach, they are on the right track and have been rewarded with greater consistency.
Their performance in Suzuka demonstrated this progress, especially in high-speed corners. Ferrari made great strides in high-speed corners, and their drivers feel more confident in the car’s capabilities.
Although the car is not perfect, Leclerc acknowledges that there is still room for improvement in terms of predictability. However, Ferrari’s ability to address its weaknesses and move in the right direction is crucial.
For years, Ferrari has been criticized for self-sabotage and wasting great opportunities. However, under the leadership of team principal Fred Vasseur since 2023, the team has gradually improved in this aspect.
This improvement is evident in their strategic decision-making, such as Leclerc’s successful one-stop strategy in Suzuka. This was the result of careful planning and effective communication between the team and the driver, who insisted on extending his first stop even though he was on medium tires.
Furthermore, Ferrari avoided making bewildering mistakes, such as sending their drivers out on track with the wrong tires during qualifying – as they did in Interlagos in 2022, when Leclerc was put on intermediates instead of slicks in Q3. Only Sainz’s insistence on using slicks saved him from the same error.
The execution of pit stops has also been consistently good. Ferrari has four of the top ten fastest pit stops of 2024, according to the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award. Although Red Bull still dominates in this area, Ferrari firmly holds the second position.
This improvement in operations goes beyond race strategy and pit stops. Under Vasseur’s leadership, Ferrari has made great strides in decision-making and clarity. They have managed to minimize internal politics and provide clear direction for the team.
This has had a positive impact on all areas of the team, allowing for a greater focus on areas that need improvement. Development goals have been set more precisely, and the team has avoided overreacting to both successes and failures. Communication and collaboration have also improved.
At Ferrari, controlling these aspects has always been crucial to achieving success.
Although Ferrari still has a long way to go before becoming a consistent threat to Red Bull, there are signs that they can challenge and defeat Red Bull in a fair fight this year, as demonstrated in Melbourne.
Sainz believes there are certain tracks where Ferrari can be competitive and fight for victory.
“I think when we go to tracks like Monza, Singapore, or Miami, we will be in contention and have a chance to fight for wins,” said Sainz.
So far, Ferrari’s updates have been relatively small. They added winglets to the rear wing in Australia and introduced a redesigned aerodynamic fairing for the upper leg of the rear suspension in Japan. They have also made specific adjustments for each circuit to optimize the car’s aerodynamics on different tracks. However, the first major update is expected to arrive in Imola next month and will include a new floor.
Sainz admits that Red Bull will likely have an advantage in the first part of the season until Ferrari brings their updates. However, he acknowledges that by then, it may be too late to close the gap in the championship standings.
“Meanwhile, we need more races like Australia!” Sainz added.
Unlike Mercedes, Ferrari has not publicly given up on fighting for the championship this year. However, their main focus is on progressing faster than Red Bull to position themselves as genuine contenders for wins next year, when Lewis Hamilton joins Leclerc.
Vasseur emphasizes the importance of constant improvement in all areas, and the evidence suggests that this approach is yielding results.
Although Ferrari still has a long way to go before being considered a serious threat to Red Bull, their recent progress indicates they are on the right track to achieve that goal.
This is exactly what Ferrari needs to transform from a team that consistently fell short in the past 15 years into a championship-winning team once again.
© 2024
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