dialtone wrote: ↑08 Mar 2024, 21:31
I'm gonna put aside a bunch of stuff on this race and quali.
I'm pretty impressed with the work Ferrari engineers have done on the car to improve it so much compared to last year. They didn't follow popular trends like pull/push-rod suspensions or massive anti-dive fronts, they fixed their floor problems, car doesn't bounce, a brand new driver with 1 hour experience placed the car 11th just basically 0.05 shy of Q3.
That's a good car for being 2 race old being so close to the RB20. I'm impressed.
Absolutely, summed up nicely. I’m impressed by the work they’ve done. The car is a beast in medium- and high-speed corners as already seen in Bahrain and again confirmed in Jeddah. Not following trends shows confidence in their own ideas and I really like that. Vasseur when asked about their rear wing choice for Jeddah said that they’re doing their stuff and not looking and copying others on the grid. I think that’s an important aspect. Taking ideas/inspirations from others is one thing, but blindly copying (which they don’t do) is another.
Also, Bearman’s confidence in the car and his ability to easily put in fast laps shows the massive improvement in drivability compared to the SF-23, like you mentioned.
Vanja #66 wrote: ↑09 Mar 2024, 13:20
I believe missing Sainz forced them to stick with Day 1 setups, I'm sure they wanted to at least try different wing for a bit on track and assess it with either both drivers or make direct comparisons in FP3. This way, they have a wing too big for Jeddah 3rd year in a row...
I’ve not thought of this detail, that makes sense. I’ve been asking myself why they didn’t at least try the lower DF rear wing as they brought one to the track (as per upgrade list), but Sainz’ sudden missing might have forced them to doing so. This very likely compromised their one lap pace, but I’m looking forward to a strong race pace. Also Leclerc said that he hopes to have a good surprise and challenge the RedBulls in the race.