Ferrari brought a significant update to Imola, one of their two home races of the season, and after Friday’s practice the impovements looked promising. And that was even without addressing the issues that drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have identified during the first six races of the season.
“It’s an organic development of the car,” Jock Clear explained. “So we know what route this car is taking from the beginning of the season, because you choose your development path and we’re carrying on that development path. I think when Charles talks about the weaknesses of the car, obviously we’re six races in and there are areas that we’ve identified.”
The current head of the Ferrari Driver Academy, and Leclerc’s driver coach, adds: “All of those areas are never going to be any worse if you just bring a car that has more potential so there’s always that underlying development route and all teams will continue to go down that development route.
“Clearly there’s things that we can do to help the weaknesses of the car and I think that’s more of a set up thing. So as I say, this development is carrying on an organic growth, it’s just more chocolatey with a bit more flavour.”
Having worked as race engineer for former World Champions Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button, among others, Clear knows bit about setting up and developing a car, and he admits the setup need a bit more tweaking to really get the SF-24 in the mix.
“The set up I think is what we’re probably still working on. We have some developments in that area as well. So I think we’re looking to maybe move the set up around a bit to extract more from the car and to really target those weaknesses that we’ve identified in the first six races.
He continues: “But I think those two development paths carry on in parallel always, throughout the year you’re always looking to get more out of the tyre contact patch, but on an aerodynamic side you’re always going to get more out of the tyre contact patch if you just give it more vertical load.
“So there’s the simple ‘we’ve brought a more chunky aero package’, but we’re also always working on the set up. And I think there’s things we’ve found in the last couple of races or there’s things we’ve identified in the last couple of races that I think we can attack here.”
Despite the upgrade package not having translated into a front row qualifying today, the next package is already on its way.
“[The next upgrade is] already in the pipeline. I think you have to develop with confidence, you have to say ‘okay, this group are now working on the Imola update’, you’ve already allocated guys who are now working on the next upgrade, and you work on the basis that the Imola upgrade is going to give you what you want.
“If something turns out not to work then, yeah, you maybe have to put the brakes on everything and say ‘hold on a minute we learned something here that we didn’t know’, but you can’t develop fast enough if you’re always just doing one package ‘okay let’s wait and see what happens with this one’.
“You’ve got to be confident that you know what’s going to happen with this Imola upgrade and therefore you’re already working along the next avenue.”
A huge part of this newfound confidence is due to Frédéric Vasseur’s leadership, as he actively creates a “no blame”-culture to the likes of Mercedes.
“Honestly, I think it’s a testament to Fred,” Clear says. “You know that’s what leadership gives, [give] people the confidence to make more risky decisions and honestly, that’s Fred’s strength.”
“If he says that’s what’s needed, that’s all very well as long as he facilitates that, and he absolutely does, so he’s giving people the confidence to say ‘no we can try some different things and if we learn something that’s all we can do, if it goes wrong we’ll still have learned something’.
“And it’s giving people the confidence to do that and I think that is noticeable since Fred’s been around and people enjoy that. People aren’t scared of trying new things unless they think ‘oh my god, I’m gonna get all the blame for this’.
Ferrari seems to have hit the nail on the head with this approach, as the gap to Red Bull seems to be shrinking.
“The fact is people are now looking at it from the point of view that we can learn a lot faster if we take some risks. And yes I think if we all just generally keep pedaling, Red Bull are pedaling at the same speed as us.
“The difference is, Red Bull don’t have to take risks. And they’re probably thinking ‘probably best not to take risks because we are where we are’.
“So it’s that risk factor that will be the differentiator between the other teams trying to catch Red Bull and Red Bull.”
