Ferrari show off heavily-revised SF-24 in Fiorano
Ferrari have completed their filming day on their own test track in Fiorano with their race drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclec getting behind the wheel of the updated Ferrari SF-24.
Following last weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, the Scuderia did not hesitate to ramp up their preparation for their first home race that takes places in Imola next weekend. The two-day test session saw the team work in Fiorano with four drivers – race drivers Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and reserve/development drivers Oliver Bearman and Arthur Leclerc.
The first day saw the two development drivers get behind the wheel of the 2022 F1 Ferrari car, the SF-75 while Sainz completed a test run with the current machinery that was equipped with FIA’s newest version of spray guard.
The second day saw the two reserve drivers continue their work behind the wheel of the two-year-old SF-75. By contrast, Carlos Sainz was joined by his team-mate Charles Leclerc with the pair completing a filming day. However, the pair did not continue the experiments with FIA’s spray guard, but was eager to rack up mileage with a heavily-upgraded car that is set to make its debut at next weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Central to the upgrade package are a revised floor and sidepod inlets. Ferrari started the new ground effect era in 2022 with a unique inwash bathtub design which has evolved since. Last year’s Spanish Grand Prix saw Ferrari ditch their design path to introduce a more Red Bull-like downwash concept.
The Scuderia has tweaked the bodywork concept several times since last year’s Barcelona race, and came up with a distinctive underbite concept for the start of the current season as shown on the upper picture of formu1a.uno. Ferrari now appear to have ditched this configuration on their heavily-revised car, having switched to an overbite concept.
The overbite configuration sports an upper leading lip of the sidepod that extends out and hoods the inlet. The change indicates that Ferrari may have quickly found the limitations that the underbite concept has, that is why they have moved towards the inverse assembly, having used the underbite configuration for only a short period of time.
As a result of the new side intakes, the bodywork has also been redesigned. It now features a more pronounced undercut section with the entire leading edge that connects the floor with the bodywork having been revised.
Moreover, the images show that Ferrari have removed the separate vertical bypass duct beside the chassis. Instead of being a separate section, it has been merged with the main inlet to form one larger inlet.
The rear-view mirrors also sit on a much more extended vane to support the tweaked bodywork and assist to flow conditioning to the rear of the car.
With Ferrari retaining the very slim upper V-shaped air intake, it is fair to assume that the Scuderia's power unit has fairly little cooling requirements.
The revised Ferrari SF-24 sports a more aggressively designed rear wing, albeit it is more likely that the Italian outfit will use it at tracks that require medium-downforce configuration. The new version of rear wing continues to feature the aggressively designed separation of the tip section from the endplate.
