Ferrari is remaining cautious about claiming that the upgrades that it introduced at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix have resolved the team’s high-speed bouncing issue.
The Italian marque began the campaign on a promising note with a revamped SF-24 car that delivered nine podiums and two victories across the opening eight races.
However, Ferrari’s nascent championship tilt unravelled when an update delivered to June’s Spanish Grand Prix triggered accentuated bouncing in high-speed corners.
Despite implementing short-term remedies to address the problem, Ferrari’s mishap in development saw it spiral down the order as McLaren and Mercedes improved.
But Ferrari brought several new parts – including a revised floor – to Monza which appears to have corrected the issue as Charles Leclerc won on the team’s home soil.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur urged caution, though, citing how the unique circuit characteristics make the Italian track not the ideal venue to review its modifications.
“It’s quite difficult to understand the impact of the upgrade on a track like Monza, because we are in such a different configuration compared to the rest of the season,” Vasseur said.
“But at the end of the day, when you see the qualifying and you have six cars in less than one-tenth [two-tenths actually], every single bit makes the difference.”
Leclerc, who echoed Vasseur’s view prior to the weekend, believes it would be premature to suggest that Ferrari can now aim to rival McLaren in the remaining races.
“The upgrade definitely brought us closer to McLaren, but I don’t think it’s enough to be the car to beat for the rest of the season on other tracks,” he assessed.
“Singapore maybe could be a strong track for us. On the other tracks, I still feel like we are a step behind McLaren and Red Bull.
But we’ve seen that we can be very on a par with McLaren if we do everything perfect. We’ve done some steps forward. I think we need some others.”
Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz, who was fourth at Monza, has also conceded that Ferrari won’t get an accurate gauge until it tackles Austin’s high-speed sweeps in October.
“We will need to wait for more normal tracks to see if this upgrade has really turned our season around and we’re going to fight for wins from now on or we are going to go back to what we saw in Zandvoort,” Sainz added.
“I’m honestly not sure. We need more samples on this new floor and we need to go to more normal tracks.
“I guess the next normal one is Austin because the ones coming up are very particular, Baku and Singapore. Austin will tell us how good we are with this new floor.”
“In Baku there’s not one single high-speed corner or medium-speed corner, it’s all low-speed, very particular like Singapore.
“So I think we are not going to see how much we’ve improved the car in high-speed to medium-speed corners.”
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