Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc walking back to the garage.
Having to revert to their Imola spec SF-24, Carlos Sainz says Ferrari lost “two or three months” of development as they rolled back on updates.
The second fastest team in the early rounds of the 2024 season, Ferrari were Red Bull’s main rivals as Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix before Charles Leclerc stood on the top step of the podium in Monaco.
Carlos Sainz: We have lost two or three months of performance gain
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper
Ferrari achieved their latest victory with the help of their first significant season upgrade, which involved introducing a heavily revised SF-24 model onto the grid.
Ferrari took a step forward with their car, but with McLaren and Mercedes making significant upgrades on the track as well, they decided to accelerate their development program in Spain by implementing another round of major changes.
The lap time achieved fell short of their expectations, and to make matters worse, porpoising resurfaced in the Ferrari F1 car.
Sainz acknowledged before the British Grand Prix that bouncing around the tracks, particularly in the high-speed corners, was likely causing them to lose “even more time” than they had initially anticipated.
Ferrari conducted comparison tests on Friday at Silverstone, after which the team decided to revert back to the previous upgrades. Consequently, they opted to use the same car they had at Imola for both qualifying and the Grand Prix.
Sainz finished a distant P5 in the race while strategy calls cost Charles Leclerc who was point-less in 14th place.
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After securing the P5 position at Silverstone, Sainz expressed his dissatisfaction to the media, including PlanetF1.com, stating that it was evidently inadequate.
“Our car remains largely unchanged from the one we had in Imola, while other teams have made improvements and potentially gained two-tenths of a second. Unfortunately, we had to go back to our previous setup.”
Clearly, our recent decision-making has been inadequate as we have forfeited the opportunity to achieve two or three months’ worth of performance improvement in the wind tunnel.
“I sense that today marked a return to the fundamentals, going back to the car we had in Imola, and now it’s just a matter of making enhancements. However, it’s evident that our competitors have taken a significant leap forward.”
Ferrari is expected to conduct comparison tests during the Friday sessions of both the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Spa race. These tests will help them determine which package to proceed with for each particular weekend.
Sainz predicts that there will be additional bouncing ahead for the teammates.
He said that we will bounce in Turns 4 and 11 in Hungary, but until a better solution is found, we might have to accept the bouncing for some time.
“In high-speed tracks, it may be necessary to utilize the floor of this older package as the alternative is not drivable.”
I have faith in the team’s ability to consistently make the correct decisions from one circuit to another, until we receive a more stable package. This package should eliminate any bouncing at high speeds and perform well at lower speeds. Once we have this, we can begin strategizing on how to compete with the top three teams once again.
Ferrari have scored just 50 points in the four races since Leclerc’s Monaco Grand Prix, putting the Scuderia’s P2 in the Constructors’ Championship under threat as they sit just seven points ahead of a charging McLaren team.
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