ANALYSIS: Data reveals the difference between Ferrari's Imola and Barcelona-spec car

Following an impressive start to the season, Ferrari appears to have lost its way with the introduction of a comprehensive set of upgrades at the Spanish Grand Prix. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo analyses the difference between the Imola and Barcelona configurations of the SF-24.

Ferrari kicked off the season in encouraging fashion, establishing itself as the field-leading Red Bull’s main contender. However, as the year progressed, Ferrari appeared to have fallen behind McLaren and Mercedes.

The main issue was presented by the Scuderia’s latest upgrade package that was introduced at Barcelona. Although the revised floor and engine cover improved the downforce level of the car, it induced an unintended effect with bouncing. The SF-24 has suffered from severe bouncing at Barcelona, Spielberg and Silverstone - the three rounds where the new package was used.

So severe was the bouncing that the Scuderia sacrificed the Silverstone round to run the different specifications on the opening day with Carlos Sainz using the Imola-spec SF-24 and Charles Leclerc running the Barcelona-spec configuration.

Ferrari fast-tracked a new upgrade package for the Spanish Grand Prix in a bid to keep pace with the clear steps that its main rivals, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren have made.

The Barcelona package included a new floor to aid airflow, a heavily-restyled engine cover and a new high-downforce rear wing. As seen on the illustration by Rosario Giuliana, the Scuderia has made key changes to the way the middle section of the car interacts with the airflows.

After the opening day in Spain, Charles Leclerc was delighted with the way the upgraded SF-24 worked. "The upgrade that we brought is doing what it's supposed to do. It's a good step forward," Leclerc insisted.

However, both he and his team-mate Carlos Sainz complained about bouncing after qualifying, claiming that they were forced to lift off in high-speed turns so severe was the issue.

Although the team performed a thorough analysis after Barcelona to come up with some tweaks to the setup for the Red Bull Ring, Turns 7 and 9 at the Spielberg track caused bouncing, limiting the car's performance in the last sector.

As a result of the ongoing limitations, the Italian team elected to carry out a comparison run on the opening day of the British Grand Prix to get on top of the issues. The data provided by Formula Data Analysis shows the way the upgrades influenced the performance of the SF-24.

In the hands of Leclerc, the Barcelona-spec car delivered a better performance in the low-speed Turns 4 and 11 where maximum speeds are around 90 kph and 115 kph respectively. The modification appears to bring more performance and a net gain in the medium-speed corners compared to the Imola-spec configuration.

While the data shows that the two different cars achieved similar overall performance in the high-speed Turn 15 that is usually referred to as Stowe, the real issue was presented by the brutally quick corners of Turn 9-14.

In Turn 9 (Copse), Leclerc lost time to Sainz, but the more worrying sign was that he needed to lift off in the mid-point of the corner to calm down the rear of the car. That was the same phenomenon both drivers suffered from at the Red Bull Ring and Barcelona.

In the following sequence of turns, Maggots-Becketts-Chapel, the Monegasque felt his new-spec car nervous, particularly out of Chapel that leads onto the Hangar straight.

This unstable rear end prompted Ferrari to "downgrade" Leclerc's car back to the Imola configuration as the Monegasque preferred a more stable car to a slightly quicker, but extremely nervous machine.

Following the Silverstone round, team boss Fred Vasseur said that he is sure that his outfit made the right choice to sacrifice the British Grand Prix weekend to boost its performance for the remainder of the season.

“It is difficult to say after the result but we did a step forward in Silverstone,” he said. “From a technical side, we have a better understanding of the situation on Sunday evening than on Friday morning.

“This is encouraging for the rest of the season. For sure, the result was not ideal because we compromised the result in qualifying than the race.

"We had exactly the same situation last year, almost at the same stage of the season – Silverstone, Budapest and Spa. We stop it at Zandvoort, had a good scan of the situation and had a good recovery because the weeks after, we were there.

“What is tough in this situation is you don’t have tests, proper tests, to fix it or to at least understand it. It is very difficult as a team to compromise or sacrifice Friday sessions when you know you are losing time during the weekend and say ‘ok, let’s forget about FP1, FP2 and focus on the mid-term’.

“Trust me, this decision as a team, is difficult because you start the weekend – and it was even worse at Silverstone with the weather – and it means you put yourself in a tough situation, but this we knew before, but it was even worse that Saturday morning was with wet tyres, but it is like it is. We assumed the decision before the weekend and I think it was the right call to do it," concluded Vasseur.