Ferrari’s SF-24 faces persistent bouncing challenges on medium and high-speed tracks, and it doesn’t look like the challenge is going to be solved anytime soon.
Ahead of the Hungary Grand Prix, team boss Fred Vasseur, along with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc, explained why Ferrari is so tricky to drive and why this challenge is so tricky to solve.
Throughout 2024, the Ferrari SF-24 machines of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have been plagued by bounces and now, speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, team principal Fred Vasseur has explained why the challenge is so difficult resolving. Training
You see, Ferrari brought a new package of upgrades ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, but while the functionality improved, the bounce didn’t improve.
“Barcelona’s improvement is on paper. And a lot of it is on the track,” Vasseur said.
“Unfortunately, the bouncing came back in some fast corners, but in all of them.
“Since this can’t be replicated in the wind tunnel, the cause is complicated. “
Wind tunnel testing is one of the most critical tactics for a Formula 1 team to assess the quality of innovations made to a race car. Unfortunately, wind tunnel testing is not foolproof. It cannot emulate all race conditions, making it difficult for Ferrari to find answers to this specific problem.
Bounce is a fundamental problem, but it also creates other problems.
“Bouncing causes the temperature of the tyres to rise, and that leads to time being lost in some places,” Vasseur explained.
“That’s why we have two other bass specs at Silverstone.
“Now we have all the way to Budapest to find a solution.
“At first, you’ll have to create a bounce-free state and sacrifice a little lap time.
“But the goal has to be to eliminate the culprits of the rebound with an improvement. “
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Speaking to the media ahead of the Hungary Grand Prix, the two Ferrari drivers spoke about the bouncing issues from their perspective.
As for Leclerc, he felt he had to make drastic adjustments to his set-up in order to locate the plan of attack for the future.
“The turning point came in Barcelona, where we obviously had an improvement that caused a little more bounce,” Leclerc explained.
“And for my part, especially from that moment on, I was excessive in changing the settings to try to find a way to avoid those disorders where you pay value with results, however, you gain a lot of wisdom on those matters.
“I think it will allow us to recover from this weekend.
“I mean it’s obviously very vital for us to lose as few races as possible to perceive those problems, but I think we perceive them better now. “
“And I’m sure everything will improve in this race to maximise the problems here and in Spa as well and for the rest of the season. “
It’s a frustrating delay; As Leclerc pointed out, the team has noticed a strong trend of improvement from Monza in 2023 to Monaco, where the local driver took the win.
Carlos Sainz Jr. , meanwhile, expressed confidence that the two drivers’ other methods at Silverstone helped the team move forward in terms of development.
“I am hopeful [. . . ] that we are on the right path,” he said.
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