2024 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[dialtone]

Turns out flexible wings really help out, who would have guessed noodles is the new advanced material.

The speed Ferrari showed in adopting this is shocking. Well done.

[Cedo]

The FW is like a noodle now

[yooogurt]

I thought they mostly fixed bouncing before Monza, like I didn't notice anything in Zandvoort or spa or even hungry, race pace there was pretty good not as bad as Austria or Silverstone

They used the floor from Imola, slightly modified, instead of Barcelona spec, no?
And on the Barcelona one, you could get rid of the bouncing, you had to lift the car, but it would cost the pace.

[bananapeel23]

I thought they mostly fixed bouncing before Monza, like I didn't notice anything in Zandvoort or spa or even hungry, race pace there was pretty good not as bad as Austria or Silverstone

I think they were setting the cars up to mitigate bouncing during that time which might not have been an ideal setup for pure pace.

That is my understanding as well. They had horrific bouncing between Canada and Silverstone, then started to mitigate it through setup compromises in Hungary. In Spa and Zandvoort they didn't suffer from severe bouncing, but were still suffering from reduced performance due to setup compromises. In Monza they brought the new floor, which seemed to completely solve the bouncing without forcing them out of their ideal performance window.

So yes, they had solved the bouncing by Hungary; but up until Monza, it came at the cost of performance. They gained a boatload of performance in Monza because they didn't have to raise the floor to prevent bouncing, which also improved their tyre warmup, since they could put more energy into the tyres.

It's tragic, really. If they didn't push out terrible updates from Spain until Hungary and Leclerc maintained his season average points haul (disregarding the 4 races where the updates ruined the car), he would have had something like an additional 50 points. Ferrari would be leading the WCC comfortably and Leclerc would be within 30 points of Max.

[dialtone]

Every team pushed out terrible updates. I can’t blame them for trying to push the envelope. Some teams are still figuring it out and they aren’t.

[Sevach]

The FW is like a noodle now

Pretty flexy yeah.

[ScuderiaLeo]

Vasseur seems to imply in this interview that if any clear upgrades are to come, it won't be for a few races. Upgrading the SF-24 is (understandably) no longer a priority.

The double victory in Austin was a testament to the progress made by the SF-24 with the latest parts brought by engineers led by Diego Tondi. These might not be the last updates we see from Maranello this year, but Vasseur was very clear in explaining the situation: "If we see something useful, we’ll bring it to the track. But not now; we’ll discuss this towards Qatar," said the French Team Principal directly. The development has entered a delicate phase where it's difficult to find major improvements. "I don't know what others are doing and the impact on performance and drivability. When you bring new parts, there can be some setup issues, so you might not make the expected progress right away. We're now talking about marginal gains."

https://formu1a.uno/it/doppietta-ferrar ... -in-qatar/

[Vanja #66]

There's a bit of confusion regarding major updates this year, there were quite a lot of them and I hope this list will help. Rear wings, beam wings and circuit-specific front flaps are excluded (there was only an update to rear wing endplates and flap tips in Imola) as they are circuit-specific requirements, just like cooling louvers. Brake ducts in my view are minor updates, so won't list them either

Imola package, update was considered as a decent performance step and a design concept shift, but nothing huge:
- front wing flaps
- sidepod intake
- sidepod bodywork
- Halo winglets
- engine cover cooling outlet
- floor

Spain package, update was supposed to be a lot bigger performance step, but turned out to be quite problematic with bouncing:
- sidepod bodywork
- Halo winglets (partial)
- floor

Hungary package was Spain floor with the most problematic features removed, ie outboard boat section vertical kicks. Sidepods remained Spain spec. It was a small improvement over Spain package in practice, as bouncing was a lot less pronounced and drivers had better feel:
- floor

Monza package was a completely new floor direction, especially diffuser area. It was rumoured to be a performance step that Spain floor was supposes to be, though without bouncing and much better driveability overall. Floor was tweaked and changed all over at once, probably the biggest floor change this year:
- sidepod bodywork (rear end mostly)
- floor (all new, practically)

Singapore package was "only" front wing flap change, but it changed the pressure map at the front and flow conditioning to the floor. It was most certainly designed to optimise the Monza floor spec:
- front wing flaps

Austin front wing flaps apparently gave the team a bigger range to balance the car in accross slower and faster corners. All in all, I think all updates so far were 6-7 tenths overall since launch spec in practice.

[deadhead]

Turns out flexible wings really help out, who would have guessed noodles is the new advanced material.

The speed Ferrari showed in adopting this is shocking. Well done.

Alright so since the composites are so advanced now, would it be possible to introduce (back) some level of flex to the floor?

[Xyz22]

Huge upgrade incoming if he needs this sort of protection

[ScuderiaLeo]

Summary of Formu1a.uno's last livestream:

• Regarding qualifying performance, the ideal situation is to consistently secure at least the second row. This is somewhat what the technical team of Ferrari expects from this car, as being on at least the second row opens up many possibilities to exploit the potential of the SF-24 during the race.
• What is interesting with the latest updates to the SF-24 is that we have seen Ferrari significantly improve the car’s weak points: qualifying, fast corners, and long corners. The step forward is especially significant for fast and long corners. Previously, the team's development involved adding new features without necessarily addressing the weak points, but since Monza, there has been a philosophy of correcting flaws.
• According to a source very close to Maranello, the new, "more flexible" front wing made a significant contribution and was immediately highlighted by the drivers.
• On the new front wing in Austin: confirmation came directly from Ferrari. The new front wing design was supposed to be introduced in Austin, but it appeared in Singapore. It was a "basic" version of the wing that was refined in Texas thanks to the flexibility of composite materials. This was an undeclared update, as the aerodynamic shapes of the wing remained the same. It proved to be very helpful in terms of efficiency in the fast sections, precisely where the SF-24 surprisingly excelled.
• Regarding engine rotation for the end of the season: currently, there are no plans for Ferrari to install a new engine. This would only happen in case of a problem.

[deadhead]

It almost sounds like they surprised themselves with how well the car is doing… similar to what McLaren were implying post Miami

https://sport.sky.it/formula-1/2024/10/ ... nz-secondo

[Vanja #66]

Summary of Formu1a.uno's last livestream:

• What is interesting with the latest updates to the SF-24 is that we have seen Ferrari significantly improve the car’s weak points: qualifying, fast corners, and long corners. The step forward is especially significant for fast and long corners. Previously, the team's development involved adding new features without necessarily addressing the weak points, but since Monza, there has been a philosophy of correcting flaws.
• Regarding engine rotation for the end of the season: currently, there are no plans for Ferrari to install a new engine. This would only happen in case of a problem.

Thanks for sharing, great insights. So there are a few important changes after Cardille left:

- floor design direction is completely different
- weaknesses are actively corrected, ie performance targets are completely different
- there's more agility and quicker reaction time (just a personal observation)

Regarding improvement in Q pace, I don't think they could have made any fundamental step with this update - if there is no fundamental suspension kinematics and damper change that wasn't visible. What could be the case is a secondary effect of performance improvement in high-speed snake and long right-hander in S3, meaning you get more energy into the tyres there and you get more temperature into tyres this way.

To be honest, I have no idea how much this high-speed improvement could also improve tyre warm-up. In theory, this is where you put the most energy into tyres and heat them up. However, even if Sainz posted his final Q3 attempt, he still wouldn't have been on pole, but both cars were quicker than either RB or McLaren in the race. So I think this tyre warm-up is slightly better as a secondary effect of high-speed improvements, but overall SF24 treats its tyres more gently than RB20 and McL38.

As far as PU situation goes, I don't know why people expected a penalty for Leclerc, there was a preventive PU swap in Monaco, but all rotations from then on were according to their original plan. Considering how tight the field is and how hard it is to overtake, I wouldn't sacrifice any race result for a PU swap.

[yooogurt]

However, even if Sainz posted his final Q3 attempt, he still wouldn't have been on pole

Questionable, he was 7 hundredths behind Lando's best time after two sectors, and Ferrari's third sector was the best, and Sainz's two mini sectors there were purple and green. Could well have been pole, the rivals weren't competitors, just had to beat Lando's time at the first attempt.

[ScuderiaLeo]

Thanks for sharing, great insights. So there are a few important changes after Cardille left:

- floor design direction is completely different
- weaknesses are actively corrected, ie performance targets are completely different
- there's more agility and quicker reaction time (just a personal observation)

Regarding improvement in Q pace, I don't think they could have made any fundamental step with this update - if there is no fundamental suspension kinematics and damper change that wasn't visible. What could be the case is a secondary effect of performance improvement in high-speed snake and long right-hander in S3, meaning you get more energy into the tyres there and you get more temperature into tyres this way.

To be honest, I have no idea how much this high-speed improvement could also improve tyre warm-up. In theory, this is where you put the most energy into tyres and heat them up. However, even if Sainz posted his final Q3 attempt, he still wouldn't have been on pole, but both cars were quicker than either RB or McLaren in the race. So I think this tyre warm-up is slightly better as a secondary effect of high-speed improvements, but overall SF24 treats its tyres more gently than RB20 and McL38.

As far as PU situation goes, I don't know why people expected a penalty for Leclerc, there was a preventive PU swap in Monaco, but all rotations from then on were according to their original plan. Considering how tight the field is and how hard it is to overtake, I wouldn't sacrifice any race result for a PU swap.

Sainz had a chance for pole. An outside shot perhaps, but a chance.

VER sectors: 24.820, 37.073, - (30.507 best so far) = 61.893
SAI sectors: 24.971, 36.984, - (30.501 best so far) = 61.955
Difference = 0.062

Assuming Verstappen did only his best time so far, Sainz would have had to do a 30.445 S3, which would've been 0.056 quicker than his previous S3 and would've been the best S3 of the session. Not likely, but possible as Leclerc did a 30.463.

He almost certainly would've gotten P2 at least. It was a very, very good lap.

Unfortunately, Mexico will be colder than Austin, so we'll have to see how much this qualifying power translates to the next track...