Ferrari has unveiled the “all-new” car that it hopes will allow it to return to its old path to victory in F1 2024.
Twelve days after shocking the sporting world with the signing of Lewis Hamilton to the team from next year, underlining its ambition to return to the most sensible of football in the coming seasons, the Scuderia’s attention has turned to the next crusade and the launch of its new challenger, the SF-24.
With a modified livery with eye-catching yellow and white stripes added to the Italian team’s world-famous red, Ferrari claims the car itself “breaks with tradition” from the last two seasons of the existing era of F1’s technical rules, as they take aim at the handling and overall functionality of drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
“Every single car has been redesigned,” said Enrico Cardile, the team’s technical chassis director.
Ferrari dropped from second to third in the F1 Constructors’ Championship last year, but the 2023 car showed promise at the end of the season, winning more poles (five) than Red Bull in the last nine races and winning the Singapore GP, the only one of last season’s 22 rounds was won thanks to one of the world champions’ cars.
But the push to eliminate last season’s inconsistencies and allow for better race performances has been a key goal for 2024.
Leclerc, who in January signed a new contract to stay with the team until 2025 and beyond, when he will be joined by seven-time champion Hamilton in a successful line-up, said: “I really like the look of the car” and that “this season the aim is to be in the lead. “
Team boss Frederic Vasseur, who is entering his second year at the helm, said: “This year we have to start where we left off at the end of last season, when we were consistently among the front, with a view to continuing consistently in all areas.
“We are in for the longest Formula 1 season in history and Charles, Carlos and I agree that we want to be more clinical and effective in the way we manage races, making ambitious decisions to achieve the most productive result imaginable in each and every Grands Prix.
“It is said that their enthusiasts can provide them with additional apparatus and this will be true in what will be a hotly contested championship and we are proud to know that we can count on our ‘tifosi’ from all over the world. “
The car will run for the first time on Tuesday in a shakedown at the team’s Fiorano circuit, with Sainz having the honour of completing his first laps.
Hamilton’s wonderful catch means Sainz is in the position of knowing that he will depart later this year and whose next destination is unknown lately. But the Spaniard is also positive about the prospects of the SF-24 as he aims to get it up to his two wins so far in what will be his fourth and final season in red.
“I’m looking forward to driving it on track to see if it suits the feeling I had with the simulator, which is that it’s the step forward we all want,” said Sainz, who took Ferrari’s only win of 2023 in Singapore last year. September. .
“The goal is to have a car that is more manoeuvrable and able to run at a constant race pace, because those are the fundamental situations to fight for victory.
From the early pioneers of F1’s new era of ground effect in early 2022 to a remote war for box supremacy chasing Red Bull’s dominance, Ferrari realised early last season that a first change in strategy was needed in the design of the SF. -24 to go out and make up for lost time.
Cardile explained: “With the SF-24 we were looking to create an absolutely new platform and in fact each and every domain of the car has been redesigned, although our starting point was the direction of progression we took last year and that took us a big step forward in terms of competitiveness in the latter part of the season.
“We’ve taken what drivers told us and turned those concepts into a technical reality, with the goal of giving them a car that’s less difficult to drive and less difficult to get the most out of and bring it to its full potential. “Limits.
“We didn’t set out for any design limitation other than to deliver a forged and fair race car that can reflect what we saw in the wind tunnel on the track.
Leclerc, who ended 2023 as one of Max Verstappen’s in-form drivers, was encouraged by the SF-24’s first feel in the team’s simulator.
“The SF-24 will be less delicate and less difficult to drive and for us drivers, that’s what we want to get right,” Leclerc said.
“I expect the car to be a step ahead in a number of ways and, from the impression it gave me in the simulator, I think we are where we need to be.
He would possibly not drive for them for another 12 months, but discussions about Ferrari’s form and long-term prospects this year will inevitably come with at least a passing reference to Hamilton’s imminent arrival, such is the importance of F1’s noted and vital maxim. Driving Force. – A driving force of success that accepts to enroll in its top outstanding and successful team.
But for Ferrari’s two current drivers, team boss Vasseur and the Maranello team as a whole, the message is in the here and now and making sure the new SF-24 delivers a more impressive season than its disappointing predecessor.
It’s true that the headlines about Ferrari in 2023 compared to 2022, when they first paved the way for the start of F1’s new regulatory era before fading away, were not favourable when looking at the season as a whole.
They finished down in the constructors’ championship (third vs. second), scored fewer points (406 vs. 554) and won fewer runs (one vs. four).
But unlike 2022, the latest crusade ended particularly better than it started, a trend Ferrari is now hoping to build on for the new season. While McLaren’s rise to prominence throughout the season made maximum headlines, Ferrari was truly the moment. Red Bull, the top scorer of the August summer break, when they took control of their car and narrowly managed to propel Mercedes to second in the standings.
That race included Red Bull’s only non-Red Bull win of the year, thanks to Sainz, in Singapore and five of the last nine poles of the season.
Still, Verstappen’s margin of victory of just 20 seconds over Leclerc at the season finale in Abu Dhabi with a car that hadn’t been evolved for months showed that the mountain still has to climb, especially race speed and that this is where much of the SF-24’s innovations are needed. Rest if Ferrari is to have any hope of avoiding a long world championship drought spanning a full 16 years.
Pre-season testing will take place from Wednesday 21 to Friday 23 February at the Bahrain International Circuit, with just 3 days for teams to prepare for the new season.
A week later, the opening race of the 2024 season will kick off with the Bahrain Grand Prix, from February 29 to March 2.
On the occasion of the Muslim saint of Ramadan, the Bahrain Grand Prix and, seven days later, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be held on a Saturday.
This means that practice one and two will take place on Thursday, with final practice and qualifying on Friday.
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