After Bahrain, Ferrari expects to perform better at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. Fred Vasseur: “I expect to still be among the best”.
It’s race week, this time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and the hopes are high for Ferrari. In Bahrain, the Scuderia had a podium with Carlos Sainz, but struggled with the braking system on Charles Leclerc’s car.
Fred Vasseur, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal, thinks that the SF-24 can prove its potential at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. According to Vasseur, the track can confirm the good impressions about the car. The aim of the Italian team is the same ad before: to reduce the gap with the Red Bulls.
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Jeddah is one of the fastest circuits on the calendar, second only to Monza, and definitely the fastest street track. It has 27 corners, 3 DRS zones and 50 laps. So, the high speed and the smooth surface will highlight the tyre management and the aerodynamics of the car. Once again, the Grand Prix will be on Saturday instead of Sunday, in order to respect the start of Ramadan.
Last week, after the race in Sakhir, Vasseur spoke about the second Grand Prix of the season: “In Jeddah we are expected from a completely different test bench. We want to check how the SF-24 will be on a track that is so different”.
He then added: “Charles and Carlos have always been at ease between the barriers of Jeddah Corniche. I expect to still be among the best”. The TP was ready to point out how close the other teams are, but he still aims to gain “important results with both drivers, both in qualifying and the race”.
At the press conference before the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc commented about his issue on the last GP and said that he doesn’t think it will happen in Jeddah too. About this Grand Prix, he said: “We are optimistic, in the first race we couldn’t express our true potential, and we hope we can get closer to Max compared to Bahrain”.
Some changes to perform better: a new rear wing for a medium-low load
As said, Jeddah will be a completely different challenge compared to Bahrain.
There are more high-speed corners and only two low-speed ones. The first one is the chicane, with a fast change of directions, and the other one is the last corner. DRS efficiency will be very important here, with three zones, and Ferrari seems to have improved in this area compared to last year.
So, this layout requires a medium-low aerodynamic load to face all the corners and the long straight.
One thing to point out is that the SF-24 has a high degree of aerodynamic efficiency. It seems that the red car thrive on corners (especially medium speed ones), but loses some performance on the straight. For this reason, we can expect a new rear wing and a less loaded solution to maximize the speed on the straight and the DRS effect as well.
As for this moment, Ferrari seems to be quite well-balanced and has improved its “driveability”. It’s also likely we won’t see a big difference in the performance in qualifying and the race, especially due to the low abrasiveness of the surface.
