Crucial days for simulations
The team director himself will tell us what has changed in the following days. At the same time, December is a hot period, at least from the point of view of searching for the last decile of theoretical performance, which is the most difficult to find.
The simulation is not over, but one thing is becoming increasingly clear: with these individual seats, the track can reveal a negative surprise.
All teams make progress over the winter, and organizational stability slightly reduces theoretical profit margins. However, there is a lot to learn about these cars.
Understanding that generates the right ideas. All of this is relative to how much it can show. red bull From February. Verstappen has won 19 of 22 races, some easily, others more, and with the same rules and tires the temptation to take long-term dominance for granted is great.
A clear break with the past
but Ferrari and Mercedes In terms of design, they have room to catch up. Changes were not possible for the 2023 cars due to the tunnel time limit and cost limit.
It is not surprising that during these months of persecution, Maranello and Brackley were forced to give up evidence and sever their links with the past.
It is necessary to rethink some parts of the chassis to take advantage of the concepts carried over from the RB19, although a certain percentage of the old parts cannot be simply removed.
“Achieving Red Bull is not impossible, at least we believe so.” But after collecting a lot of evidence (on the track, editors), we can no longer make any mistakes in the election. “We are confident we can fight again,” Mercedes sources told us.
Lesson 2023
Ferrari started 2023 with overly ambitious performance targets. PUSH SF-23 It was a two-sided chariot, and riders fought first with the chariot and then with their rivals, often ending in betrayal.
After a few weeks, the unpleasant truth emerged: the car did not have much room for improvement, that is, it was “limited”. The SF-23 was never consistent from corner to corner, which also limited setup options and the front axle was poorly protected.
During this period, Vasseur entrusted Enrico Cardele with clear responsibility for artistic decisions and allowed greater public visibility.
It is no coincidence that the Tuscan architect speaks more than in the past. “It is very clear to us what we did wrong. “We know what our weaknesses are, and now we need to review the characteristics of the machine to achieve our goals,” he explained.
“Cross the lines”
Red closed the distance a bit red bull However, during the season after understanding the reason for the lack of performance, this may not be enough. “676 cannot be evolution.
It will be a different car, that’s for sure. “Ferrari’s limits have been exceeded this year,” said Cardell at the Golden Helmets ceremony.
What does the technical director imply? In 2022, the F1-75 was a source of good ideas. The famous side channels played an important role in protecting the rear axle from turbulence.
The biggest problem was a lack of handling stability and ground clearance, which led to limitations in cornering efficiency at high speeds.
Work on the SF-23 therefore focused on finding a more efficient way of charging, but in a wrong way that did not solve the basic problem. The car was highly susceptible to bounce damage despite having a perfect aerodynamic map.
Chassis and rear axle
Aerodynamicists have made incremental speed changes with updates from Barcelona, Austria and Japan. However, this cannot solve the main limitation.
In other words, as Haas showed, canceling the famous tanks was not enough to produce a “low-cost” product. The 2024 model has a significantly redesigned chassis and overall rear axle construction that will connect the diffuser outlets differently.
Areas of interest are therefore hidden under the bodywork and under the floor. The engineers do not want the new car to suffer from aerodynamic instability to add more confidence Leclerc and Sainz.
On the car, the design of the roof racks will look completely different and they will end up digging under the belly, because the concept has already changed since Barcelona.
If there’s one thing Ferrari won’t do, though, it’s the Red Bull clone proposal. There will be our own innovations, some of which will be visible, others “surprising” in some way.