2024 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Mansell89]

How do we think Jeddah will fair for SF24? Lots of medium and high speed corners, seems to me like the SF24 likes those corners(at least in qualy). Not sure how Max is able to stretch such an advantage in the race in these types of corners though, could some explain why they think that is?

I think Ferrari will be very fast next week - in fact if they aren’t on pole next week I’d start to wonder where they can beat Red Bull at all! Not saying they’ll have the race speed but quali I expect them to be mighty.

Car looks solid, definite improvements so let’s hope they can build on this. Podium and 27 points in the opening weekend too- well done Scuderia.

[f1316]

Charles seems very clear that 2nd would have been possible without issues: https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/lecle ... /10582411/

That's not the question and he knows that, why would he be so angry about a missed P2? What makes him so furious is feeling he could have fought Max for the win. He won't say it now of course, but we all know it would have been a different race had he been in a position to do to Max what Russell did to him in the 1st stint.

We will hopefully see in Jeddah then, I wish I could share your optimism here haha

Exactly what I was going to say! I hope this is the case - I can’t say I was left with that impression from anything I’ve seen so far, but let’s hope you are right!

[dialtone]

This is race lap 2 LEC v VER. Brakes are still alright here I think, or at least manageable as LEC dropped a 1.36.86 but VER dropped a 1.36.29.

* This lap difference was T1, a weakness for Ferrari all weekend, and T11-12-13. In 11-12-13 Max is simply much faster while also not using the throttle that much. The difference is big, I think in qualifying LEC can beat MAX in Jeddah, but in the race it will be the same story as here. RBR still has a performance edge in race trim on these corners.



RUS v SAI on lap 40 (RUS is ahead of LEC still and SAI is a bit ahead, both are pushing similar laps).

* I think RUS is going through some derating of the engine at the end of straights, it might be an engine saving thing, but in the 2nd straight RUS accelerates out of T3 way faster than SAI which usually I wouldn't associate with an engine having trouble. Same thing can be said about the other long straights where the Merc accelerates quite fast out of corners. So my guess is they chose a different deployment philosophy.
* One can certainly say that RUS struggles under braking and make that be about lifting before braking to protect the engine, but RUS is also just very slow in lots of medium speed corners.
* Interesting that Merc is faster in the 11-12-13 triplet by quite a margin as well, so whatever RBR has, Merc at least has some of it. Would be wonderful if Ferrari could replicate.



This is lap 13 of the race, SAI put down a 1.37.2 and VER kept his 1.37.0 rhythm going.

Not as much loss of time in T1 here for SAI, Similar other weakness points as against LEC although T11-12-13 are less of a weakness here, but T6-7-8-9 is a bigger one instead.


And to top this all off, this is the average lap from lap 17 to 32 of the race between SAI and VER.
* RBR has better traction out of all corners, particularly up to 200kph RBR just accelerates better, then Ferrari takes over. This likely is a difference in deployment, but RBR seems to be better.
* High speed corner advantage that Ferrari showed in practice is kinda gone, both are equally fast on apex speed.
* T6-7 and T11-12-13 are just big advantages for RBR.
* The DRS for SAI explains the top speed advantage in the 2 main straights.

So yeah, I don't think Jeddah is going to be a lot different.

[dialtone]

Thinking about it a bit more...

The acceleration can be explained by Max being able to harvest a ton at the end of each straight, however T6-7 and T11-12-13 in my opinion can be explained with some trick that RBR has in its suspension to add stability when the car is rolling, if it was a pure downforce thing, other fast corners would be a lot worse, but it seems the car is just extremely stable on long radius and quick change of direction (like in Spa or Suzuka).

[Vinlarr89]

I still believe it’s possible that Ferrari can close some of this race pace gap. They’re 1 race in on an entire new concept.

I guess my only concern is this anything to do with the suspension choices. That being said the sf24 did look super stable in testing compared to SF23 that’s not saying much I know

[CouncilorIrissa]

Yeah, with the SF23 you could at least say that the car lacked downforce, hence the difference in race trim. The SF24 has plenty, yet it's still slower in race trim in this kind of corners.

Someone needs to figure out whatever it is that RB are doing. And given that Fallows is seemingly unable to replicate this at AM, it seems that not many people even inside RB know.

[SoulPancake13]

Thinking about it a bit more...

The acceleration can be explained by Max being able to harvest a ton at the end of each straight, however T6-7 and T11-12-13 in my opinion can be explained with some trick that RBR has in its suspension to add stability when the car is rolling, if it was a pure downforce thing, other fast corners would be a lot worse, but it seems the car is just extremely stable on long radius and quick change of direction (like in Spa or Suzuka).

To be fair: it is Ferrari's first season with this innovative suspension as the team calls it. Maybe just some more sim hours and trying different things could help.

[dialtone]

Yeah, I'm not here saying we're never going to improve but it's going to be really hard and 2nd might be the best we can aim for this year. Hopefully we start seeing some diminishing returns on RBR development.

[CouncilorIrissa]

The Mercedes being quicker in T11-T13 is also concerning. We might end up being the third force in Jeddah if performance hit due to wrong cooling config is as large as suggested.

Not good.

Edit: I've taken a look at f1-tempo and it seems like it's a Sainz thing, rather something inherent to the car. Leclerc is quite a bit faster in this sequence:

[CouncilorIrissa]

Dialtone, could you make a comparison between Leclerc and Sainz for the second or third stint (averaged lap)? High speed performance differential looks very interesting.

[Vinlarr89]

I have to say I’m puzzled to say the least. In quali T11 12 13 were real strengths. Now either the weight of fuel is an issue again or it’s a tyre management issue

[bluechris]

There is no point to see anything from Charles with a problematic car. The poor guy was fighting in every braking zone and that compromised also the corner exits, lets move on to the next race hoping that something will be done for the Gremlins on LecLerc garage...

[Elite]

What I am a bit puzzled by is just how insanely the red bulls pull away in the race. In qualifying I understand that they don't get the tyres in the window quick enough to be on pole but in the race they're just instantly fast as if they've warmed them up instantly. Their ERS clearly deploys earlier in the straight giving them great acceleration as from what I understand they get caught further down the straight. But red bull's weaknesses in quali are nullified in the race. Is it a trick or just a very efficient race car?

[dialtone]

This is stint 2:



LEC was behind RUS for all of it practically.

This is stint 3:



LEC was behind RUS for half of this.

So yeah, that's a big plus on LEC's side I suppose, but he was still slower (on average lap) than VER in T11.

[CouncilorIrissa]

This is stint 2:

https://i.imgur.com/wGTTNwN.jpeg

LEC was behind RUS for all of it practically.

This is stint 3:

https://i.imgur.com/AXVqXNN.jpeg

LEC was behind RUS for half of this.

So yeah, that's a big plus on LEC's side I suppose, but he was still slower (on average lap) than VER in T11.

Thank you very much!
Now I'm even more mad about the brake issues. There were two tenths more in the car, easily.