Ferrari believes the success that it has attained in Formula 1 this season has shown that the team has adopted the “right approach” in prioritising its pace in race trim.
The Italian outfit’s two victories in the recent triple-header mean it is braced to end a campaign with more wins (5) than pole positions (3) for the first time since 2015.
Ferrari’s most competitive cars in that intervening period tended to exhibit lightning pace over one lap without being able to sustain that speed across a race distance.
That was true across the opening two seasons of the current ground effect era as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz converted a combined 19 poles into four victories.
However, Ferrari outlined at the launch of the SF-24 that its development had been tailored towards ensuring that it is most competitive when the points are rewarded.
With the Constructors’ Championship still an achievable prospect with three rounds to go, Ferrari is satisfied that the team’s changed perspective has been vindicated.
Asked whether Ferrari had given up time in qualifying in 2024, Ferrari Senior Performance Engineer Jock Clear told media including Motorsport Week: “Yes, I think so.
“I think we’ve mentioned before that this year we had changed our focus a little bit.
“It was clear for people to see that certainly two, three years ago we were the kings of qualifying and really struggled on a Sunday.
“But even last year, the balance was not quite right.
“I think this year, the encouraging thing is that wherever the drivers qualify, they sort of get out of the car at the end of qualifying and think, ‘yeah, but I know that I can race tomorrow’,
which for the drivers is a really strong mentality.
“You know, in previous years, Charles has got out of the car in P1 in qualifying and thought, now I’ve got to try and hang on to this in the race.
“And that’s a real, you know, when he’s got to face 56 laps of hanging on to a position, it’s a different prospect.
“Now we go into the race knowing, ‘okay, we qualified P2, P3. We know we can race. We know we can win this from here’.
“And that’s a really, really good place to be. So psychologically and technically, it’s the right way to approach racing for sure.”
Ferrari expects Qatar to be decisive to title hopes
Ferrari must overturn a 35-point deficit to McLaren in order to secure the Maranello-based squad’s first title success since it last took the Constructors’ crown in 2008.
Clear has admitted the SF-24’s relative weakness to McLaren and Red Bull’s cars in high-speed sections will make the round in Qatar Ferrari’s toughest remaining test.
“Qatar is a tough circuit and a lot of high speed. But I think we’re making good progress [with the high-speed corners],” the Briton examined.
“And as I say, it’s a relative sport. I don’t see others making big steps.
“So the package we’ve got, I think we can work it pretty well at all of the circuits. Qatar is probably the one that will challenge us most, yeah.”
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