A lost Ferrari was seen at Silverstone. A great disappointment that highlighted major problems within the team.
The Silverstone race was rather destructive for the Maranello team. Ferrari found itself faced with a not-entirely-pleasant reality. During free practice, Ferrari carried out important comparison work. A comparison between the pre-Barcelona configuration of the SF-24 and the one that took to the track during the last two races.
The comparison did not give hopeful results. The updated SF-24 did not show an improvement compared to the package that debuted at Imola. But what was most worrying was the worse handling of Charles Leclerc’s car that emerged during free practice. While Carlos Sainz, on the contrary, seemed convinced of the old configuration.
As a result, Ferrari found themselves taking a step back, forced to use the EVO 1 rather than the EVO 2 for Silverstone.
Disappointing qualifying for Ferrari
After realizing that they had major problems with the new updates, it was decided that they would race with the old configuration. However, qualifying highlighted some major problems. Nico Hulkenberg, driving the Ferrari-powered Haas, managed to position himself in front of both Ferraris. And Charles Leclerc failed to get through to Q3.
Update or car problems?
This upgrade package was supposed to debut at Silverstone and not Barcelona. Anticipating it might have been a problem. But Ferrari wanted to bring it forward because after Canada they wanted to improve a bit. And they hoped that this update could help in some way.
In reality, it is good to specify one thing. Analyzing the present data, they show us that the updates actually work. But the real problem is the car, which brought out problems from two years ago, including bouncing. What created problems with this update is the car itself. The problem is the suspension frame which cannot handle all this aerodynamic load. The problem is congenital in the car.
With the EVO 1, there were fewer problems because the set-up was less extreme. So there was no bouncing and it didn’t cause any problems. The EVO 2, on the other hand, is more extreme in terms of configuration. Here the problem of bouncing arose. As the car jumps, it loses aerodynamics. But by analyzing the data, they showed us how the updates worked. This is because, in the slow corners, Leclerc went very fast and felt comfortable with the car. The aim of this update was to generate more load, and there were no problems with this.
What solutions Ferrari could apply for the next races
This is a package that perhaps they could exploit in Budapest as there are two fast corners. But what is important now is to find a solution. Because at Spa there are fast corners, and they will find themselves suffering from bouncing again if the car lowers too much.
With the budget cap issue, a new chassis cannot be produced.
Temporarily Ferrari can raise the car or have a floor that does not carry so much load. To improve the car in the long term, however, it is important to work on the suspension. To change geometry.
