Ferrari completed the work program without any hitches. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz travelled a total of 2251 km with the SF-24 in these three days of action in Bahrain.
The new arrival from Maranello has proven to be reliable and solid in this period, allowing the Scuderia to follow the original planning while also carrying out more advanced setup tests to verify the responses of the single-seater, which has proven to be sincere, with an exact simulator-track correlation.
Sainz-Leclerc: long runs C3-C2-C1 carried out with 100kg on board, but a different setting
Both yesterday and today, the Scuderia completed an entire race run, making 2 Pit Stops and using three different types of compounds, thus simulating the entire Bahrain Grand Prix, which will take place in seven days.
Sainz and Leclerc performed a very similar work plan, both using the C3-C2-C1 tyres, even if Leclerc diversified the second and third stints, reversing the order compared to his Spanish teammate.
The SF-24 set off with 100kg of petrol on board – a full tank – simulating a real race. However, there was a substantial difference between the two in the car setup.
The setting of the Ferrari SF-24 was changed between the two drivers. The technicians, after the positive responses received in these first outings, wanted to ‘understress’ the machine with even more radical changes to the setup.
Also, in this case, the Maranello car responded as expected, both positively and negatively, without giving any unwanted surprises to the technicians and drivers. Sainz and Leclerc basically have a different approach to this type of work. The Monegasque prefers a more aggressive approach, even in the modifications to be made to the car.
Today, we saw an SF-24, which, in the long run, had a slightly higher degradation than the day before but significantly increased the race pace with faster chronometric results.
The Spaniard, on the other hand, was the author of a more constant, faster race simulation, but with a lower performance peak.
Ferrari SF-24 convincing on race pace, needs more reactivity and speed on the flying lap
Since this winter, and as Enrico Cardile then had the opportunity to confirm verbally during the presentation and then the tests, one of the main objectives of the development of the Ferrari SF-24 was to improve driveability and make the aerodynamic platform more stable.
This would have helped the riders to push, but above all, to find more consistency in the race pace and manage the tyres better. The data from these tests confirm that the SF-24 has more load than the 2023 car, as we had anticipated during this winter and as could also be seen during the first outing at Fiorano for the filming day.
The race pace simulations also show the step forward made in race consistency and tyre management, with a car that is much easier to drive and more honest for the drivers.
“We closed our third day of testing by once again completing a good number of laps and trying several things, which is certainly positive.
“The car seems to react as we want, but it is difficult to judge our level of competitiveness at the moment,” commented Charles Leclerc at the end of the day.
The other Ferrari driver also said he was satisfied, underlining how pleasant it was to drive the SF-24 in these first outings:
“We tried different configurations to collect as much data as possible and overall the car seems to be quite okay. I’m proud of the work the team did to enable us to have such a productive test.”
The step forward in race pace will obviously have to be confirmed next week, at the first Grand Prix, but all the feedback received so far is positive.
Work remains on the empty tank behaviour. The drivers ask for a slightly more reactive car to improve the behaviour of the SF-24, especially when changing directions.
“We leave this test satisfied with the work done, both in terms of mileage travelled, and the consequent amount of data collected, and from the point of view of the satisfaction of Charles and Carlos,” commented the Team Principal, Frederic Vasseur, at the end of the day.
“Our first aim was to obtain an SF-24 with sincere behaviour, not very sensitive to changes in external conditions and which was easy to drive.
“Listening to the comments of Charles and Carlos and looking at their consistency of performance in the long run, it seems that we have managed to achieve this objective.
“It is a very important starting point because it allows the driver to learn the characteristics of the single-seater quickly and, therefore, to make the most of them. better potential.”
Vasseur did not want to pass judgment on others, focusing only on the work done by Ferrari.
“However, I would like to say that, looking exclusively at ourselves, we started off on the right foot”
Authors: Giuliano Duchessa & Paolo D’Alessandro
Translation: Jaden Daiz-Ndisang
