McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes are all set to bring significant upgrades this weekend. However, Ferrari have taken the decision to hold back on introducing major changes at the American GP. Instead, Ferrari are focused on optimising their existing package and collecting more data.
Ferrari take cautious upgrade approach ahead of Sprint weekend
Although several teams have suffered from ineffective upgrades in 2024, Ferrari were perhaps the worst affected.
Following their Spanish GP updates, the Scuderia went from Red Bull’s closest challengers to the fourth-fastest team.
Ferrari spent several months trying to recover from these failed modifications. Putting the SF-24 back into a consistent window of performance to give Leclerc and Sainz a consistent platform became the priority.
Thanks to the corrective improvements brought in Italy, Ferrari are once again in a competitive enough window to fight for wins.
In the eyes of many, this would be a good reason to continue aggressively introducing upgrades. With that said, there is a problem preventing Fred Vasseur’s team from doing this.
Vassuer wants to avoid development trap
Since introducing their latest package in Italy, F1 has raced at Baku and Singapore – two fairly unorthodox circuits. Whilst Ferrari were able to learn about their updates at these circuits, they are hesitant to draw conclusions from such a small sample size.
Moreover, bringing upgrades at a Sprint race weekend is always a huge risk. Aston Martin paid a heavy price for introducing significant upgrades at the American GP last year for this very reason.
In a weekend where other top teams will have to quickly understand their upgrades, Ferrari will be working with a familiar platform.
Though obviously not guaranteed to produce results, this approach from Ferrari mitigates risk. It also ensures the Italian outfit can be more confident about their next major upgrades when thy arrive – likely after this weekend’s action.
Considering that next year’s cars will be a direct evolution from this season, it is understandable the Maranello outfit is being cautious with its strategy.
