#sf-24?

[petit-papillion]

Ferrari’s Head of Chassis, Enrico Cardile at Dutch GP

What can you say about the 2024 Ferrari?

"Not a lot, but it will be very different, because developing this year’s car, we realised that some architectural choices we did were not right – it was constraining the development too much. From there, next year’s car will not be an evolution of this year’s car like this year’s car has been compared to last year’s car, but it will be a brand-new car – different chassis with different design, different rear end to allow our aero [department] to better develop the car to achieve their targets."

Having described 2023 as “crucial” for Ferrari to “better understand” their issues, he added:

"For us, it is crystal clear what we did wrong with the car… The weaknesses [are] clear, it’s not a matter of understanding what we should do. Now, for the future, it’s a matter of delivering a good product which will cope with the targets we have. We are not in ‘nowhere land’, we know what we have to do. It’s a matter of doing, it’s a matter of finding the right contents of the car, the right architecture of the car to achieve the target."

Charles in response to Cardile’s comments after quali:

"It’s great to hear that and obviously I can’t wait. First, I’ve got a season to finish in 2023, but we can only go in another direction because at the moment the car is really difficult to drive. It’s just very, very difficult to be on the limit

I think we are particularly struggling this weekend and even more so than what the balance would slow us down, just because we need to be so far off the limit. As soon as you get close to the limit, you just really don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s exactly what happened in my Q3 lap, so it’s a difficult situation."

Source: formula1.com

Just when did they realize their choices were wrong? Obviously, Charles didn't find out until testing.

"Crystal clear what they did wrong." Hopefully this means it's easy enough to get it right then?

He makes it sounds so easy to get it right. Stop giving me hope, Enrico.

Not really earth-shattering news here, but Charles's comments make it very clear he is the one driving this car on the limit, risking it all every time he does.

[f1archives]

📷 Leann Millo

[f1-stuff]

Japanese GP '24 // SF Full Access

[purewasteland]

that's a typo.

[kimis-gloves]

leclerc girlies how r we doing😍

[lestappenforever]

Well, might as well just

[il-predestinato]

6 TENTHS?!

Charles’ brake issue in Bahrain cost him 6 tenths per lap! 😭 Imagine the race we could have had!

(Source: formu1a.uno)

[whewchilly]

SF-24

[petit-papillion]

First look at SF-24. Spoiler alert: It's red. 🏎

🎥 Scuderia Ferrari

[f1archives]

Max Verstappen & Charles Leclerc on the podium - Zandvoort, 2024

[juergenklopp]

JOE BURROW and JA’MARR CHASE @ San Francisco 49ers (October 29, 2023)

[f1-stuff]

Saudi Arabian GP ‘24 // SF Full Access

“Hair okay?”

[purewasteland]

little touches

[squad-gallery]

Carlos Sainz Jr. - Avatars 400*640

[felinefractious]

🐱 Bengal x Scottish Fold [Osteochondrodysplasia]

📸 Angela’s Scottish Fold Cattery

🎨 Black Rosetted Tabby

[charles-leclerc-official]

The timing of Ferrari announcing they are changing the front suspension of next year's car, and still working out the direction for the rear suspension does seem to correlate with these last few races where Charles was doing a lot of data gathering after it was clear the suspension was not supporting the aero upgrades.

The current tests for the 2025 car are using a pull rod configuration instead of the push rod(which is what the current SF-24 uses)

Interesting timing. I think in the coming weeks Charles' performance specifically will be used to make more finalization on the choices for the rear suspension as well. That is a more key area and they probably need to take their time with it since they haven't run a push-rod rear suspension for this regulation cycle.

I think the data they have gathered since the upgrades has not only been informing solutions for this year, but more importantly next year as well. Since this year finally exposed the suspension as a key issue it makes sense that they want all the data possible if they are going to completely change directions.

It also may be that the pull rod on both the front and the rear supports a better front end. That also may be found. Teams that use the same configuration regardless of the method have seen better results in stability there, so it's a possible avenue. The real thing is that there does seem to be a performance disadvantage to the push rod rear if the front is the opposite. The teams that do use different configs on the front and rears have the push-rod rear suspension, and that seems to be important for balance.

At the very least the suspension seems to be a key focus for Ferrari in developments this year and next year. Considering what we've seen this is where we want the engineering focus to be. The aero packages have been strong, in fact the problem with the aero is that it's working as expected and the current suspension cannot support the improved aero performance.

Good to see the team identifying these mechanical issues and actually taking steps to address them long term.