Crucial days for simulations
The team manager himself will tell us what has changed in the next few days. Meanwhile, December is a hot period at least from the point of view of finding the last decile of theoretical performance, which is the most complicated to find. The simulations never stop, but one thing is now becoming clearer: with these individual seats, the track can reveal negative surprises. All teams are making progress over the winter, and organizational stability reduces theoretical profit margins slightly. However, there is a lot to learn about these cars. Understanding that generates the right ideas. This is all relative compared to how much he can show Red Bull Since February. Verstappen has won 19 of 22 races, some easily, others more so, and with the same rules and same tyres, the temptation to take prolonged dominance for granted is high.
A clean break with the past
Ma Ferrari and Mercedes They have room to catch up in terms of car design. Changes were not possible with the 2023 cars due to the tunnel time limit and cost cap. It is not surprising that during these months of being hunted, Maranello and Brackley were forced to surrender to the evidence and sever their connection with the past. It is necessary to rethink some parts of the chassis to take advantage of the concepts taken from the RB19, although a certain percentage of old parts cannot simply be eliminated. “Red Bull is not impossible to catch, at least we think. But after collecting a lot of evidence (on the track, editor) we can’t make any more mistakes regarding the choices. “We are confident that we can fight again,” Mercedes sources told us.
Lesson 2023
Ferrari started 2023 with overly ambitious performance targets. there SF-23 It was a two-sided car and the drivers would fight first with the car and then with their opponents, often ending in betrayal. After a few weeks, an uncomfortable truth emerged: the car didn’t have much room for improvement, in other words it was “limited.” The SF-23 was never consistent from corner to corner, which also limited setup options and left the front axle inadequately protected. In this period, Vasseur gave Enrico Cardele clear responsibility for artistic choices and gave greater visibility to the audience. It is no coincidence that the Tuscan architect speaks more than in the past. “For us, it is quite clear what we did wrong. “We know what our weak points are, and now it is a matter of reviewing the characteristics of the machine to achieve our goals,” he explained.
“cross the lines”
Red has closed the gap a bit with Red Bull During the season after understanding the reason for the lack of performance, but this cannot be enough. “676 cannot be an evolution. It will be a different car, that’s for sure. “Ferrari’s limits have been pushed this year,” Cardell said at the Golden Helmets ceremony. What does the technical director indicate? In 2022, the F1-75 has been a source of good ideas. The famous side troughs had an important function in protecting the rear axle from turbulence. The biggest problem was the lack of handling stability and ground clearance, which led to limitations in terms of efficiency in high-speed cornering. Therefore, work on the SF-23 focused on finding a more efficient loading method, but in the wrong way, which did not solve the basic problem. The car had a high susceptibility to harmful rebound despite the perfectly good aerodynamic map.
Chassis and rear axle
Aerodynamicists made incremental speed changes with updates from Barcelona, Austria and Japan. However, this cannot solve the major limitations. In other words – as Haas showed – the cancellation of the famous tanks was not enough to produce the goods “at low cost”. The 2024 model has a significantly revised chassis and overall structure of the rear axle that will connect the diffuser’s outflows differently. Therefore, areas of interest are hidden under the car body and under the floor. Technicians do not want the new car to still suffer from aerodynamic instability to provide greater confidence Leclerc and Sainz. On top of the car, the design of the carriers will look completely different, and they will end up digging under the bellies because the concept has already changed since Barcelona. However, if there’s one thing Ferrari won’t do, it’s design a Red Bull clone. There will be innovations of their own, some of which will be visible, others “surprising” in some way.
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