SUMMARY
- There are a few notable differences between the SF-23 and the SF-24.
- Ferrari have designes the SF-24 to increase the confidence of the drivers.
In the last few years, Ferrari has had a hard time trying to get into the Championship fight. However, Red Bull has been dominating the sport since 2022. Now Ferrari seems to want to take a more aggressive approach towards developing their car.
Given that the team has signed 7-time Champion, Lewis Hamilton from the 2025 season, they will be looking to use this season to test some parts to develop it for the 2025 season. However, the team was one of the closest to Red Bull’s pace last year. So all hope is not yet lost for the team. There is still a chance that they make the right changes in this year’s car to challenge Max and Red Bull for the Championship.
What changes has Ferrari made for the 2024 season?
Ferrari unveiled their 2024 challenger on February 13th. The team’s Technical Director, Enrique Cardile had initially mentioned that their 2024 car will have an entirely new concept. However, with the car’s first look, there are not many notable differences. The original concept of the car remains to be the same. However, there is no doubt that the team has made a few tweaks to make the car easier to drive.
Right off the bat, there is some change in the design of the sidepod. This design largely affects the fluency of the airflow from the front of the car to the rear. A poor design here would result in a lot of turbulence. This would make it difficult for the driver to control the car while taking it around a corner. This new design is expected to result in smoother airflow in the underbody of the car.
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Ferrari believes that this new design will make the car easier to drive and give them more confidence on track. During the first half of the 2023 season, we saw Charles Leclerc lack confidence in some of the races. This led to several retirements in the initial races.
Given that Red Bull was the strongest car in 2023, it is natural for other teams to take some inspiration from the RB19. Ferrari has done so as well. There are some similarities when we compare the RB19’s radiator inlet to the Sf-24’s. However, there won’t be much of a performance boost coming from this design change.
One of the main challenges for Ferrari would be to catch up to Red Bull. However, we cannot expect Red Bull to have the same pace as last year. They will be making some upgrades themselves to further increase their lead over the others.
How does the SF-24 compare to the RB20?
Red Bull unveiled the RB20 on February 15th. There were a few notable changes that could drastically affect the pace of the car. The team decided to go with a vertical inlet valve for the radiators. This is a design none of the teams have ventured into. It is believed that this idea should drastically improve the speed of the car. It is expected to improve the airflow throughout the car.
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The team is expected to make some more changes before the season starts. However, the RB20 and the SF-24 are very different from one another. Both the cars are expected to bring more changes and upgrades during the off-season and the season opener. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect the pace of the cars.
The car we saw in the livery reveal will not be the same when it hits the track for pre-season testing. The teams usually don’t reveal their key designs before the season starts. If they do, it would allow other teams to study them and see how they can be used in their car ahead of the season. To retain this performance advantage over the rest, the teams decided to hide most of their upgrades until they hit the track in Bahrain.