Ferrari still keen to explore botched F1 upgrade
Ferrari will not fully abandon the upgrade path that led to its botched Spanish Grand Prix upgrade.
For June’s Barcelona race, a new floor was among parts added to the SF-24, but whilst it did succeed in adding more downforce, it also threw the car out of balance as high-speed porpoising became an issue for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
As a result of this and other teams successfully upgrading their machines, Ferrari slipped to fourth in the pecking order, but there have been flashes of recovery with two podiums and a pole for Leclerc in Belgium and Zandvoort, before going on to win the Italian GP at Monza.
Ferrari introduced a new floor upgrade for Monza, but has not completely shut down the development path of the failed upgrade.
“A lot of it is reaction, because the Barcelona floor did produce a lot more downforce, but of course, it really, really did suffer from the bouncing, and so that’s what we had to react to,” explained performance engineer Jock Clear.
“Generically, the path we were travelling down in that aerodynamic development, that hasn’t changed, but what has changed is: ‘Okay, but the bouncing is under undermining all of the development we’re bringing, so actually, that aspect is now what we’re going to have to focus on.’
“So the generic course we’ve taken has not changed, but we’ve, sort of in parallel now, said: ‘Okay, but we really need to do almost a separate project on the side to manage the bouncing.'”
The timing of the package being introduced at one of Ferrari’s home races lead to speculation that Ferrari had brought a ‘Monza special’ upgrade to perform well in front of the Tifosi.
However, Clear rejected that claim and insisted the timing was all natural.
“No added added pressure. I mean, it’s a natural development,” he said.
“It’s one of those things where the x-axis of development is always time, and therefore we, can develop, everybody’s developing.
“What’s important is how quickly you develop, and in F1 there is no time when you choose not to develop as fast as you can.
“Well, that’s not true. Maybe a year ago Red Bull maybe they decided not to put upgrades on because they didn’t need to when you’re in that luxurious position. That’s great.
“But for most of the teams, you’re just bringing it as fast as you can. So there’s no mindset that says: ‘we have to get it to Monza.’
“If it was possible to get it to Monza, we would always have got it to Monza, even if Monza had been Zandvoort or Monza had been Barcelona.
“It’s not because it’s a Ferrari circuit and that we’re in Italy. We develop as fast as we can because that’s what you have to do in F1.”
