2024 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[catent]

I also get the sense they’re being too conservative with the tires, both in terms of the driver and the setup. If you’re going to use a higher downforce setup, you’ve got to extract more from the tires. Or, go with lower downforce, race more conservatively, but find back lap time in high speed and straight line.

[CaribouBread]

They didn't try to go with the lower DF but it'll be interesting to study their setup choices, how much tyre preservation the base car can really give up for pace. That'll be the real developmental battle for Ferrari for now.

[F1ern]

Its a brand new car, they have to learn a lot. I think there is much potential even in the current state of the car, without any upgrade.

[Autobahn303]

There's definitely more pace in that car. Leclerc was matching Perez when he was in Race mode.

[CouncilorIrissa]

Also, absolutely mad performance by Bearman. Very clean and mature drive.

[Emag]

Fast lap on last lap… hopefully last race of being conservative when we’re racing nobody.

Leclerc mentioned he got DRS in the last lap so he took the chance to push for the fastest lap. I think without the DRS delta, Lewis would have had it. Still, pretty good pace on 40+ lap old hards.

[Space-heat]

Didn’t think you could legally do med-med, don’t you have to use 2 different compounds?

I meant in case the SC came after the first pit stop.

[organic]

Lec did well to get fastest lap there.

However story will be about Bearman. Spectacular job

[Xyz22]

We lacked consistency. Lot of work to do.
RB balance in the race is just in another league. You could put Gaston Mazzacane right now and would do well with that car

[f1316]

Bearman did well; as someone who cares mostly about the team, ultimately it’s still a shame for the weekend as I think Carlos would have nabbed a few more points. He did very well though and I think it also shows that the car is reasonably compliant and not a monster to drive.

If Ferrari were indeed conservative with set up and race strategy, then I think that’s both sensible and encouraging. Tracking the lap times while the top three were in clear air, Leclerc was generally about half a second slower and my initial impression was “ok, we’ve halved the gap from last year - not spectacular but decent progress”. But towards the end it became clear that the car had more raw pace and they were managing. Sure, the RBs were clear and didn’t need to push but you saw a green sectors from Max on the last lap and you know he will take that whenever he can (look at last year). They seemingly had some tyre temp issues but it shows the Ferrari manages the tyres well and there’s room for a bit more pace just out of this base car. You wonder if the 0.3 behind prediction - at least on this track - is far off being accurate.

Still a step needed to really fight Max but it’s one step (albeit a clear one in addition to anything RB does) and not multiple. Feels like the bodywork is not super aggressive and Ferrari have more room for optimisation there - hoping they can bring the first new parts to Japan.

[Xyz22]

Bearman did well; as someone who cares mostly about the team, ultimately it’s still a shame for the weekend as I think Carlos would have nabbed a few more points. He did very well though and I think it also shows that the car is reasonably compliant and not a monster to drive.

If Ferrari were indeed conservative with set up and race strategy, then I think that’s both sensible and encouraging. Tracking the lap times while the top three were in clear air, Leclerc was generally about half a second slower and my initial impression was “ok, we’ve halved the gap from last year - not spectacular but decent progress”. But towards the end it became clear that the car had more raw pace and they were managing. Sure, the RBs were clear and didn’t need to push but you saw a green sectors from Max on the last lap and you know he will take that whenever he can (look at last year). They seemingly had some tyre temp issues but it shows the Ferrari manages the tyres well and there’s room for a bit more pace just out of this base car. You wonder if the 0.3 behind prediction - at least on this track - is far off being accurate.

Still a step needed to really fight Max but it’s one step (albeit a clear one in addition to anything RB does) and not multiple. Feels like the bodywork is not super aggressive and Ferrari have more room for optimisation there - hoping they can bring the first new parts to Japan.

Right now we struggle to fight against Perez who is not even close to Sainz in terms of speed. Lot of work to do.

[Vanja #66]

Not a good weekend with Sainz missing out, Ferrari will need him back at full strength and he'll hopefully get back in Australia. We may not get a direct confirmation on that, but I'm 99% certain his absence was the reason to keep the bigger wing as a known setup and hope for the best.

The best was not good, on average lap on Hards Leclerc was losing 4-5 tenths on straights and made up 2-3 tenths in corners once he was ahead of Norris. Until then, consistent losses and clearly an overly conservative approach to avoid any risk of flat spotting while overtaking. This amplified the gap, but it was still impossible to beat RB with so much straight-line handicap. Early SC was the worst option for Ferrari, but they still got an easy P3 on a weekend with the wrong aero setup. I have to admit until lap 25-30 I was pissed they didn't leave Leclerc out on Mediums, but then amazingly there wasn't another SC and the safe choice of pitting to Hards was the right choice. Can't complain, strategy was simple and good, especially for Ollie!

Ollie was amazing, keeping the bigger wing certainly meant a lot for him and his confidence in the corners. Really an amazing success to take P7 on a debut like this, without any simulator prep for F1 race like a typical reserve driver would get. The track is really challenging and this makes all the more amazing. To finish just 14s behind Leclerc on same tyres, that's just 3 tenths a lap slower, surreal!

C2 Hards were mega OP here, could have done 2 races on one set. They need to change to C5-C3 range next year, this is ridiculous

2 positives from this weekend: 1) keeping the big wing was useful data gathering on 2 very different tracks and will be helpful preparing for Australia; 2) getting the Fastest Lap with Max also pushing for it on the final lap was extra delicious, even if he didn't take it away from Hamilton

[Xyz22]

Leclerc was not happy about the setup, so there is probably a bit of room for improvement in that regard as well.

[Vanja #66]

Leclerc was not happy about the setup, so there is probably a bit of room for improvement in that regard as well.

There was no defending against Perez with this wing and we saw how crucial low drag was for defense with Hamilton and Piastri. He managed to defend from RB duo boxing him in on purpose into T1 and later had no chance when DRS was enabled.

[Xyz22]

Leclerc was not happy about the setup, so there is probably a bit of room for improvement in that regard as well.

There was no defending against Perez with this wing and we saw how crucial low drag was for defense with Hamilton and Piastri. He managed to defend from RB duo boxing him in on purpose into T1 and later had no chance when DRS was enabled.

He said the car wasn't performing as he expected in the first phase of the second stint.