Jock Clear, from Ferrari, described the significant update package that the team brought to the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix of Formula 1 as “delicious, with an extra touch”. The brand unveiled the long-awaited modifications to its SF-24 in Imola on Friday, consisting of seven performance-focused changes compared to the initial version. Ferrari seeks to respond to the improvements made by McLaren in Miami last time, while reducing the gap to the Red Bull leaders. However, Charles Leclerc has tempered expectations regarding the updates, recognizing Ferrari’s deficiency in low-speed areas as a key concern that needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, Clear emphasized that these developments were planned in advance and believes they will naturally alleviate the issue. “I believe this is in line with the previous point that it is a natural progression of the car. We have been aware of the development path since the beginning of the season and we continue on that trajectory,” explained Ferrari’s Senior Performance Engineer. “When Charles mentions the weaknesses of the car, it is important to note that we identified these areas after six races. Bringing a car with more potential will never worsen these weaknesses. There is always an underlying development path that all teams follow. There are certainly things we can do to address the weaknesses, especially in terms of setup. Therefore, this development is simply an organic growth, but with a more pleasant and exciting touch.”
The 60-year-old Brit revealed that Ferrari has been making progress during the mid-season period before implementing updates to the setup to address inherent deficiencies. “The setup is still something we are working on,” he added. “We have made some advances in that area as well. So, we are considering adjusting the setup to extract more from the car and address the weaknesses we identified in the first six races. But these two development paths continue simultaneously throughout the year. You are always striving to get more from the tire contact area. On the aerodynamic side, you can get more from the tire contact area by increasing vertical load. Initially, we thought a more substantial aerodynamic package would help, but we are also constantly working on the setup. In the recent races, we have found things we can address here.”
Unlike McLaren, Ferrari has decided to postpone the introduction of updates to the car this season due to the presence of the Sprint format in the last two stages in China and Miami. Despite McLaren’s good start with the modified MCL38, Clear believes that F1 teams need two hours of practice to understand the new parts. When asked about the time needed to fully utilize a renewed package in terms of setup, Clear replied: “There is no definitive answer to that. You can adjust it quickly if you have the right opportunities. If today is a relatively calm day and both drivers feel comfortable with the car, that is, they are not struggling just to make the car drivable, and they go out and say, ‘Ok, this is a pretty good starting point and these are the areas we need to improve’, then yes, you can do it in two sessions. Unfortunately, it cannot be done in just one session, so a Sprint weekend will always be challenging with any update. The time required varies. If the update significantly changes the characteristics of the car, it will take much longer. However, these updates are relatively minor compared to historical terms. We used to bring updates that would give us three tenths of a second, but those days are over. All teams now have a more gradual development curve, and an improvement of one tenth of a second is what you aim for to move up three or four positions on the grid if you are among the top ten.”
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