I can't believe how good the SF-24 was on race pace without upgrades. Leclerc made a 1 stop work at Suzuka with his fastest lap on the last lap, jumping Alonso and Norris
If we compare the SF-24 to last year's car on the same track, it's on another league. I have no doubt, once Leclerc solves the tire warming problem in qualifying and have the upgrades, he is going to start winning races.
We are getting closer to Red Bull just by understading the behavior of the SF-24. This race, Sainz race pace was not that far off Verstappen and he was in clean air.
What gives me hope is that Ferrari know exactly the direction to take this car to be able to win races and no need to experiment because the race pace on full tank is not a worry and certain tracks better than Red Bull.
Have you seen the updates that teams brought to this historic track? I have. Ferrari brought 2 teeny tiny upgrades.
RedBull brought like 5 or 6 (I forgot) upgrades and AMRF1 brought like 7 or 8(I forgot as well).
Given the level of performance Ferrari achieved at Suzuka with 2 tiny upgrades, I say game on. Ferrari currently look to clinch a solid 2nd place at the WCC title.
It's not how start but how you finish.
Congrats to Ferrari. All in all a perfect race for us, disregarding the Bulls. Charles tire management was incredible. He'll come alive soon, and we'll see the old quali monster back.
But still have a hard time understanding why we wait so long for upgrades. Binotto did the same in 22 and the car did not improve. I'd like to see constant smaller but signifcant upgrades and then a big one to bring them all together. They should be making the car faster every race, not just relying on track characteristics. Teams are too close to put all eggs in one basket, if upgrade isn't what was expected we can lose ground very quickly.
I hope waiting till Monza works out for us and we don't lose places in the next 2 races, although like some mentioned, they should be warmer so should help our quali.
Leclerc 2nd guesses his pit lane radio(Xavi ??) and goes longer on his tires. Good tire strat call by Leclerc while driving 200mph in Japan in a race with 18 other drivers AND his pit boss has more information than Leclerc.
https://twitter.com/F1GuyDan/status/1776991590797414692
It's not how start but how you finish.
Hi guys, new member to this forum. Always been a Ferrari fan! Glad to be part of the community! All I want to say is that for quite some while we have a team with good operations- strategy and above all technical direction. I think that it bodes well for the rest of the season (fingers crossed after all it’s Ferrari we are talking about!).
Yeah, it makes me think that Red Bull doesn't have a huge .5 a second zero side pod update that they're going to spring on the field. It shouldn't be possible with the decreased development time from winning the championship.
It's very much game on, but it all comes down to the upgrades for the European leg of the season.
btw, decent observation, it made for a much improved quality post for a change, keep it up.
Last edited by Cavallino; 7th April 2024 at 20:08.
If we listen to what Perez said after Australia, that Red Bull will struggle in front limited tracks of that nature. Shanghai is somewhere in between, and with what some others have said, it takes Red Bull longer to dial in the setup, and with China being a sprint weekend, it could be a competitive weekend.
Now the front and rear limited circuit thing isn't an absolute. Suzuka is supposed to be front limited and it clearly isn't our track. And Ferrari is really good at slow corners which makes me think rear limited is more our thing. Bahrain is rear limited but not to the degree of say a Monza.
Miami should be interesting because it's a street circuit should be rear limited, but it has a few high speed corners as well, but it's very similar to Australia in a lot of ways. If we could get a good performance there without upgrades and keep this thing close, hold on to your seats boys.
Sure the SF24 has been performing pretty good without updates. But you have the Champs bringing updates and winning races.
Could we have made the SF24 a winner if we brought updates more often?
We're not that far off the front, if we had updates that gave us another 2or 3 tenths, maybe Red Bull wouldn't be cruising to victory every race.
Waiting 7 races for a major update, and bringing nothing in between..... I'm not sure that's the way to win championships.
At least bring some parts and try them, at least to verify the correlations are correct and the big update is going to work.
If our big update only yields 2 tenths, then is our next big update going to be in the last third of the season?
I want to see the team be more aggressive.
But Ham did ask his team if he should let George by.
Let's see how many times he does that next year.
So 2023 started off bad, but managed to claw back some lap time come end of the year. Lets hope SF24 will give us tifosi something to smile about.
Leclerc Sainz Hamilton Bearman pick 2 ? Ferrari arrow pointing up. Merc and Williams are a joke.Imagine Ferrari performing like Williams Merc or McL? Lol
No upgrades yet,did RB major upgrades actually do anything? Ferrari cut the gap from last Suzuka race with no upgarades.
Williams should be relegated.
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
The Allison effect. Same as in 2015 and 2016 when he designed our cars and we had no idea when they would be competitive and when they would be bad.
I never did rate him that highly, now that he's in charge at Merc without all the supporting cast, they are where we were in 2015.
Mercedes was also quite terrible before they started their domination. We all know why the dominated and got away with it. The problem with them is, they wont endure this for too long, they will likely once again become just an engine supplier after the 2026 formula if they are not able to compete.
Rest in Peace Leza, you were a true warrior...
Plus they got Aldo Costa.
Great designer just couldn't get a handle on EBD cars.
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
Yeah, it is both quite satisfying and funny to see the current form of the Mercedes. Quite ironic that they despised their 2022 zeropod car, which has now proven to be the most competitive Mercedes in this current ground effect era.
I was worried that they would stubbornly stick to their zeropod concept and keep on developing it, like they did in the previous gen with the low rake concept. But thank god they didn't and now they are at sea.
Hopefully Red Bull will soon "enjoy" the same fate.
Rest in Peace Leza, you were a true warrior...
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