Ferrari’s 2024 has offered us with a group that’s actually rising considerably in comparison with the very current previous. Solely in 2023, the Maranello group needed to face a technically dramatic scenario, with a automotive that was unfit to compete within the F1 World Championship and a group actually in disarray, nonetheless reeling from the administration greater than from the hands-in-hair moments of Mattia Binotto. With the curly-haired, bespectacled supervisor, they hit all-time low on a number of events, and the aggressive first half of the 2022 Method 1 championship actually can’t be sufficient.
With the arrival of Frederic Vasseur, issues have modified, and in nearly two years of labor, the Frenchman has cleaned home, sending away these figures who over time solely brought on harm or just not had the precise motivation to maneuver ahead, equivalent to David Sanchez, who left Ferrari proper after realizing the disasters of the 2023 automotive to hitch McLaren first, and some weeks later, Alpine.
The most recent high-profile identify to depart the historic Maranello group was Italian aerodynamicist Enrico Cardile: the technical director left final July, simply days after the disastrous aerodynamic replace delivered to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, which, in hindsight, successfully excluded Ferrari from the world title battle with McLaren. Till that second, Ferrari had managed to keep up an excellent tempo, with two wins and a number of other vital podium finishes.
The legacy of the engineer from Arezzo was due to this fact spectacular, because the SF-24 began to indicate damaging performances till the summer time break, once they determined to take a special path, revisiting the early season work and the Imola replace, thus forming a hybrid automotive and growing a brand new replace path that evidently paid off till the top of the season.
The muse for Ferrari’s 2025 automotive due to this fact appears to be fairly stable, as Frederic Vasseur himself admitted lately, although he couldn’t assist however reiterate what has been stated in current months, together with in a number of of our articles: with the disastrous aerodynamic replace launched launched by the Ferrari technicians and engineers in Spain, the Maranello group misplaced many factors within the direct battle with McLaren, which have been essential within the lack of the constructors’ championship.
“It was a optimistic season, contemplating all of the reference metrics,” stated Frederic Vasseur. “The wins went from one to 5, and in comparison with a 12 months in the past, we scored nearly 50% extra factors. We’re heading in the right direction. We’ve improved when it comes to efficiency, reliability, and effectivity, as confirmed by the principle efficiency indicators. We have to proceed aiming larger: we wish extra and should work on the areas the place we’ve proven weaknesses.”
“Total, nevertheless, the stability is actually optimistic this 12 months. I’m significantly happy with the response we had within the face of the difficulties encountered through the summer time months. We have been in a shitty scenario, however we managed to get out of it because of the teamwork and dedication of our group. This outcome actually fills me with satisfaction.”
As all the time, the Frenchman didn’t mince phrases, ready till the top of the 2024 Method 1 season for some harsh however nonetheless impeccable statements. The summer time flop, led by those that are not a part of the Maranello group, nonetheless stings, nevertheless it additionally served to scrub up for a special Ferrari within the close to future. 2025 is already across the nook, and the brand new automotive already has excessive expectations, particularly for the reason that lately concluded season ended with an upward curve from the SF-24, which didn’t develop into world champion solely due to that clumsy try at enchancment that didn’t succeed.
“We confronted troublesome weekends, just like the one in Baku,” says the group principal of the Scuderia. “Though we completed second with Charles, I imagine we might have executed a significantly better job than that outcome. Singapore was one other sophisticated weekend, with each vehicles qualifying in ninth and tenth place. I feel we might have achieved rather more, and the identical goes for McLaren.”
“It was an excellent season, nevertheless it’s not sufficient. If we evaluate it to final 12 months, it represents an enormous step ahead: pit stops, technique, reliability: we improved in each side, together with pure efficiency. We’re 14 factors brief, and I feel if you’re 80 or 100 factors behind, you don’t really feel the identical frustration. McLaren additionally had its issues, and we might want to work higher subsequent 12 months. That stated, I’m nonetheless fairly happy with the tempo we managed to set.”
— see video above —