Ferrari has opted for continual use of a pull-rod rear suspension layout and has outlined why it averted following rivals Mercedes in adopting the push-rod system used to great success by Red Bull.
Red Bull’s mastery of rear suspension via its push-rod system in the latest era of ground effect aero rules has given its cars a wide operating window of performance through multiple ride heights.
Meanwhile, Ferrari has found its cars tricky to manage, with last year’s SF-23 in particular being a difficult puzzle to unlock from weekend to weekend.
The Scuderia has overhauled its car concept for 2024 in a bid to catch Red Bull, but the extent of the changes seen on the SF-24 doesn’t extend to switching rear suspension systems.
“We tested for a couple of years a pushrod suspension,” Ferrari Technical Director Enrico Cardile told select media including Motorsport Week, as he outlined why the team was avoiding the Red Bull route.
“In reality our suspension, rear suspension is a bit different in terms of wishbone top lower wishbone distribution compared to a Red Bull one, to mention one team, and we recorded a good aero results and moving towards this direction while moving from push rod to pull rod, we didn’t measure a big advantage such to justify some compromise in terms of weight or compliance.
“So from there, we evolved our suspension keeping the same layout.”
Despite sticking to a pull-road, Cardile noted the Scuderia had made revisions to its suspension configuration.
“The main differences compared to last year car are on the rear where the inboard suspension is differently located inside the gearbox,” he said.
“It is also a different concept which for us at least has been an innovation because it’s a different way to manage the inboard suspension compared to what we did in the past.
“The front is pretty much a carryover of the last year in terms of concept.”
The buzzword for Ferrari development has been drivability and its focus with the SF-24 was to design a compliant car that its drivers are comfortable extracting performance from.
In the development phase, the team did investigate alternate suspension layouts, but found the best compromise came with continuing with a pull-rod setup for a third straight year.
This puts at odd with not only Red Bull, but Mercedes, with the 2023 runners-up switching from pull to push-rod.
By extension, Aston Martin has also gone the push-rod route as it inherits engine, gearbox and rear-suspension components as a Mercedes customer.
McLaren, another rival that will no doubt be in close contention with Ferrari throughout 2024, continues with a push-rod layout at the rear.
Being at odds with its opponents affords Ferrari either the ability to steal a march on its rivals, or fall behind, dependent on which concept proves better over the course of the season.
Still, Ferrari’s investigations lead the outfit to believe it has gone the right way, but will only find out as it continues to develop the SF-24 out on track.
“During the development, well not only the development of this car, we investigated the different suspension layouts for our targets, our flow management, we found a good compromise with the current layout of suspension,” Cardlie said.
“By talking about compromise. I’m talking about aero performance, weight, compliance of the suspension and so on, during this season, we are not planning to change the suspension layout.
“Then let’s see through the development what we will learn there, but so far we are happy with this configuration.”
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