Due to a crucial feature, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur thinks the SF-24 is a much stronger platform than the vehicle from the
previous year.
Early in 2024, some outsiders could find it difficult to identify Ferrari’s reasons for optimism. After all, Red Bull, who has won the last
two races in the F1 championship, is starting the season some points ahead of the Italian team.
Max Verstappen is still very good in an RB20 machine that is getting better. On the surface, Fred Vassuer and his team still lag behind
the current Champions by a significant margin.
Still, there are a lot of signs suggesting the Maranello-based company is closing the gap.
The fact that there isn’t a big difference between qualifying and race pace this year, in contrast to last, may be the most significant
advancement for Ferrari.
The club had struggled with same issue a year before, despite some improvement in the last three months of the campaign.
As of now in 2024, this rising trend has persisted. The advancement of the Scuderia is helping even the customer team Haas.
Clearly, the SF-24 is more of a Sunday car than a Saturday one, even though Enciro Cardile and his technical team are still trying to
wring more performance out of it.
Considering that points are awarded in Formula One for achieving outcomes on race day, this is good news for Maranello.
The SF-24 is still unable to activate its tires like its predecessor, even if it has made impressive progress in terms of race pace.
To compete with a well-rounded machine like the RB20, this needs to be fixed. Max Verstappen is starting to get into the habit of
going out front and pulling away.
In 2023, Ferrari finished with five pole positions, an incredible feat. They can definitely give Red Bull more of a headache on race day
if they can reclaim this ability on Saturdays.
The Italian team will find encouragement in the fact that they are currently working with a very simple specification.
With increasingly sophisticated modifications, the SF-24’s actual package will show its full potential.
There are reasonable concerns that Red Bull and Verstappen, with their current dominance, won’t be overthrown by these regulations.
Scuderia Ferrari, though, is in the strongest position of all the F1 teams to contend with the Dutchman for race wins.
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