Ferrari is utilising two Formula 1 filming days this week at the team’s Fiorano test track to sample the sizeable upgrades it will bring to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Italian outfit has produced an encouraging opening to the 2024 campaign, with six podiums and a 1-2 finish in Australia seeing it sit second in the championship.
But unlike the team’s main rivals, Ferrari has not delivered updates to its SF-24 car, with McLaren’s upgraded MCL38 car helping Lando Norris to take the win in Miami.
However, Ferrari’s initial upgrades for this term have been earmarked for its home race at Imola, a venue it has not triumphed since with Michael Schumacher in 2006.
In order to get a headstart on dialling in the developments prior to the grand prix weekend, Ferrari has opted to use its remaining filming outings with the modified car.
Images that have been leaked online from the opening day on Thursday have revealed that Ferrari’s third driver Oliver Bearman is accumulating further F1 experience.
The Briton, who deputised for the unwell Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia and placed seventh, will conduct a practice session in the Haas VF-24 at the Italian track in FP1.
Ferrari will be restricted to 200km track time on distinctive Pirelli tyres, but it will still provide a chance to correlate the on-track data with the wind tunnel simulations.
But while rumours in the Italian media have talked up the potential from the upgrades, Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur denied that the team was anticipating a big step.
“We don’t have to expect that it will be a game-changer, but it’s so tight that this can bring performance,” Vasseur said last weekend in Miami.
“Our competitors brought parts this weekend, and it was not a game-changer.
“But it’s also that when in qualifying you have four or five cars in one-tenth, if you bring one-tenth, it’s a game-changer for the weekend.
“But a large part of the result, it’s also coming from what we are doing with the drivers, the set-up of the car during the weekend, the management of the tyres.
“We don’t have to think only about upgrades and development, it’s also the job that we are doing on track.”
When asked whether the timing was a coincidence, Vasseur replied: “The fact that Imola is close to the factory is helping us bring something, because we can release the parts a bit later.
“But no, it was nothing to do with Italy. Then again, we don’t have to expect that it will be a game-changer, but it’s so tight that this can bring performance.”
The shakedown is also the first time Ferrari has used its traditional livery with the blue branding from HP, which has come on board in a lucrative title sponsorship deal.
HP’s branding was present on the Ferrari car, garage and team gear in Miami, but the marque sported a unique blue-infused scheme to celebrate its American heritage.
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