Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has confirmed that the SF-24 will be getting another upgrade at the upcoming United States Grand Prix, marking the end of Ferrari’s car development plan for the 2024 season.
Earlier in the season, Ferrari introduced a major upgrade at the Spanish Grand Prix, but the new components caused the car to suffer from bouncing, particularly in high-speed corners. This setback affected performance, making it difficult for Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to drive the car with confidence, ultimately forcing the team to revert to older-spec floors until a solution was found. Ferrari then brought a significant upgrade package to their home race in Monza, including a new floor spec, which seemed to perform as intended.
The team was competitive at the front, with Leclerc successfully executing a one-stop strategy to outfox the McLarens and secure an emotional victory in front of the Tifosi. With their recent issues seemingly resolved, Ferrari is now set to bring another upgrade to Austin. However, Vasseur stated that after this, the team’s focus will shift towards preparations for 2025.
“We all know that we already started the development of the next car, and we try to do our best to have small upgrades at the next [race],” he said.
“I think it will be probably the last one for everybody; that will be true for us, but it will be true for the other teams.
“Now it’s so tight. Not today, the race, but overall the last four, five, six races. If you have a look on the grid, it’s mega tight. Every single bit can make a difference.”
Sainz agreed, saying: “I think every team has one more upgrade more or less in the pipeline, or one more thing that they are trying to do before the end of the year. So we can still see some swings in performance.”
“What we need to see is if [Ferrari’s upgrade] makes a difference in Brazil, and all the normal tracks, basically, that are more old school.”
Asked about the lasting effects of Ferrari’s latest significant upgrade, Leclerc stressed that the team needs to approach each weekend with realistic expectations.
“It’s an impossible question to answer for now,” he said.
“We are seeing the numbers that we expected bringing those new parts on the car like in Monza or here [in Singapore]. However, we still don’t have the definitive answer of how much closer did we get to the McLaren, to the Red Bull on a normal track.
“For now these are very specific tracks in which we have performed also quite well in the past, even when we didn’t have quite the car to fight for wins. So we need to stay cautious and keep working. But I’m sure we need a step forward. How much, I think we’ll see that in Austin.
Leclerc added: “The worst thing we can do at this moment of the season is to have wrong expectations going forward. (…) Personally, I would expect probably McLaren and Red Bull to get back to their normal level of performance. I mean, McLaren never really left it, but to still be the car to beat and Red Bull to come back at a better level of performance, that will make our life a little bit more difficult.”
“And on our side, we need to be good at having the right expectations going into the weekend because otherwise it pushes you to try and find performance that is not in our car for the moment. But we are working well and I think the development is going well.”
Ferrari currently sits third in the Constructors’ Championship with 441 points, trailing Red Bull by 34 points. McLaren leads the standings with 516 points.
