Ferrari Senior Performance Engineer Jock Clear has revealed that the team is optimistic it has got on top of the bouncing issue with its 2024 Formula 1 car.
An upgrade package introduced at June’s Spanish Grand Prix unlocked induced accentuated bouncing through high-speed corners with the SF-24.
A series of races were spent investigating the issue and reverting to a pre-Spain specification of the latest-spec Ferrari F1 challenger.
After a series of string results post-summer break, Clear has explained those are the product of Ferrari identifying and eradicating its bouncing conundrum.
“You’re never fully confident – but I think it’s a good picture of how the ebb and flow of everybody’s development goes,” Clear told media including Motorsport Week.
“But you’re probably asking the same questions to [other teams] – have you lost your way?
“And certainly after Spain, we didn’t feel we’d lost our way, but there was some anomaly between what was happening in the tunnel and what we were seeing on track, and we had to get on top of that.
“That’s just the process; when you see an anomaly, you have to get on top of it, try and understand it, and then get back on track.”
Ferrari must be ready for the next F1 ‘anomaly’
With Ferrari’s wind tunnel “anomaly” identified, Charles Leclerc scored an unlikely podium at Zandvoort and a euphoric victory at Monza.
Qualifying in Singspore prevented Leclerc’s podium run from being extended, but his pace was strong, going from ninth on the grid to fourth.
With Ferrari’s form improving, Clear noted it’s important for the team to be ready for the next problem if and when it occurs.
“We just have to be eyes wide open for what the next anomaly will be, because there will be another one because that is the process at the moment,” Clear explained.
“So it’s not that sometimes the development works, sometimes these developments don’t work: the development process is exactly that you are testing something new every week.
“We’re confident that our process is working, confident that we’re on top of everything. We’ll just wait for the next banana skin.”
Wind tunnels can’t explain kerb and bump-riding
Since F1 ushered in the current ground effect rule cycle in 2022, teams have struggled with wind tunnel correlation to on-track performance.
Clear theorised this due to the complex parameters surrounding car ride height as ground effect aero requires cars to be as close to the ground as possible.
However, wind tunnels can’t simulate the conditions experienced when running over kerbs or uneven track surfaces when cars operate with an extremely low rake.
This has caught out not only Ferrari, but the Italian giant’s F1 rivals.
“When the car’s a long way from the floor and the floor is not generating huge amounts of downforce based on its proximity to the floor, then the tunnel can be pretty accurate,” said Clear.
“But as soon as you get into what’s happening over a kerb, what’s happening when you’re bouncing, the tunnel can’t do that.
“We can bounce the car up and down. But of course, the data then looks a mess. However much the data looks a mess on track, the driver has to drive it.
“There’s a certain level of correlation between the tunnel and the track, that it’s difficult that you’re ever going to get 100% fidelity.
“You’re always going to have these anomalies and with the ground effect, the anomalies are bigger because that proximity to the ground becomes all the more powerful.
“When it gets to zero, you lose all your downforce, when it comes back up to five millimetres, you get loads of downforce and you get into this really peaky area on the floor.
“And everybody’s challenged with that all the time.”
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