Ferrari Technical Director Enrico Cardile has revealed that every area of the team’s 2024 Formula 1 car, the SF-24, has been “redesigned” from its troubled predecessor.
The Italian marque encountered a problematic beginning to the previous campaign with a capricious SF-23 charger that proved susceptible to wind direction.
Having opted to retain the inwash ‘bathtub’ sidepods from its race-winning 2022 car, Ferrari initiated a mid-season concept change to Red Bull’s downwash solution.
That prompted a late-season revival that saw Ferrari clinch the sole non-Red Bull win of 2023 in Singapore, while it almost beat Mercedes to second place in the standings.
Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur confirmed at the end of the year that it would be changing “95 per cent” of its car components to address its core limitations.
Speaking ahead of the SF-24 being launched, Cardile has explained the process behind Ferrari’s decision to radically overhaul its design scheme for the upcoming campaign.
“With the SF-24 we wanted to create a completely new platform and in fact, every area of the car has been redesigned, even if our starting point was the development direction we adopted last year and which saw us take a leap forward in terms of competitiveness in the final part of the season,” Cardile explained.
“We have taken on board what the drivers told us and turned those ideas into engineering reality, with the aim of giving them a car that’s easier to drive and therefore easier to get the most out of and push it to its limits.
“We did not set ourselves any design constraints other than that of delivering a strong and honest racing car, which can reproduce on the race track what we have seen in the wind tunnel.”
Cardile highlighted that Ferrari’s leading aspiration with its latest creation was to produce a more stable platform for its two drivers to have the confidence to push.
“The main targets we gave to us developing the SF-24 has been to enhance the drivability of our car, to allow our drivers to exploit all the potential,” he expressed.
“The other target has been to have a robust platform in terms of delivery on track, to make sure that all the performance developed in the wind tunnel will be present also on track.”
He added: “Designing the SF-24 didn’t give us any constraints. It was important to unlock all the performance available. For that reason, all the areas of the car has been interested to a complete revamp.”
The Italian also divulged how the SF-24 represents a “big departure” compared to the two previous cars Ferrari had constructed under F1’s current ground effect era.
“The target we had for developing the SF-24 has been the same we gave us during the season development of the SF-23,” he outlined.
“So in terms of a general target, the SF-24 is in continuity with what we tried to achieve with the SF-23 during the season, but it’s a big departure compared to what we did in 22 and 23.”
Asked whether drivers feedback had been taken onboard, Cardile responded: “To have a clear idea on how to develop the car means for us to have understood the comments of our drivers and to have translated them into engineering parameters.
“So the drivers are the pivot of our development and as engineers our duty is to understand what to do, how to develop the car to make them happy on track.”
Meanwhile, performance development on the power unit side is forbidden due to the engine freeze regulation in place through the remainder of the current regulation period.
However, enhancements to reliability can still be made at the discretion of the FIA, which will prove to be an essential factor with a record 24-race calendar ahead in 2024.
“Even though power unit development is frozen by the regulations, it doesn’t mean that 2024 does not present some interesting challenges,” Enrico Gualtieri, Ferrari’s Technical Director Power Unit, detailed.
“We will be tackling more races than in any other year of the championship and that will require us to react more quickly, with fewer hours available on the test bed.
“To prepare for this, we have reviewed all the processes relating to the engine – preparation, signingoff and management – in order to maximise performance.
“Furthermore, we have worked very closely with our partners to further optimise procedures relating to reliability: for example, at the track, thanks to the regular monitoring of the fluids in the car, Shell is able to constantly check on the state of health of the power unit.”
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