After the first five races of the season, Ferrari can be satisfied with the performance offered on the track, but after the Shanghai race the time has come for the Maranello team to bring the first updates to the SF-24
Ferrari for the first time this season in the Chinese GP did not place an SF-24 on the podium. In the next appointment which will be on Miami GPthe Maranello team will bring the first big news on the single-seaters, waiting to see a bigger package. The hard tire certainly didn't work in China, with both riders unable to get the compound up to temperature. Ferrari, which however maximized the damage in China, is currently at 44 points behind from the Red Bull in the Constructors' classification and therefore confirms itself as the second force in the World Championship.
So in Miami we could see the first real updates brought by Ferrari, on a weekend where we remember the second Sprint of the season will be held. In China, Ferrari fell off the podium for the first time at the start of the season, being outclassed by one McLaren more competitive with Lando Norris that he gave half a second per lap to Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari between China and Miami
What went wrong on the SF-24 in the Chinese GP? Surely since the beginning of the season we are used to seeing a car that performs the opposite of last season, that is not very competitive in qualifying and better performing in terms of race pace. The SF-24 has never really been in Shanghai a danger to opponents, especially in the race where the simulations predicted something else. The difficulty of getting the tires up to temperature is obvious, if we then consider the low temperatures in which we raced it becomes an arduous task “turn on” the hard rubber.
The lack of grip on the Chinese track also had a significant impact. In Maranello, as confirmed by the team principal himself Frederic Vasseur, we are working very hard to bring the first significant updates to the SF-24. We could already see the first changes to the car in the next Miami GP with a totally redesigned bottomthen waiting to observe how the two Reds will behave in Imola where we will see an SF-24 “extreme” to try to close the gap to Red Bull and confirm itself as the second force in the World Championship.
Vasseur's words at the end of the Chinese GP
The Ferrari team principal speaks to Sky Frederic Vasseur has developed an analysis on what went wrong on the SF-24 and the next updates:
We started from behind already in qualifying then in the race we had an excellent first stint with the medium tyres. But then we struggled with the hard tires where it was complicated to put them in the right window. Overall the main difficulty was starting in sixth and seventh place, so it becomes difficult to recover. Updates? At the factory the guys are working like crazy day and night to bring the updates to the next races. We have already anticipated some small news, then we must consider the difficulty that bringing updates into a sprint weekend is not easy. I think the problem this weekend was not extracting all the potential from the package available.
And what do you think of the Ferrari race in China? Will Frederic Vasseur's team be able to raise its head again with the updates? Tell us your opinion via a comment below and follow us on techgameworld.com to stay up to date on the world of Formula 1!