Ferrari’s first half of the 2024 F1 season has been a rollercoaster between incredible wins in Australia and Monaco, to big drops in performance in circuits like Montreal.
The Italian outfit started the year as the second-fastest team on the grid, but McLaren and Mercedes’s dominant performances have since eclipsed their pace, especially with the team’s emerging porpoising issues
Bouncing has plagued them since the introduction of their upgrades in Imola, the team has since brought elements to mitigate the issue, but the development fall compared to other competitors on the grid hurt them more than expected.
When asked about the problem, Fred Vasseur, the team principal affirmed that despite the disappointing finishes, the closeness between the competitors is promising: “Bouncing went well, under control. Performance of the car, I would say that if you finish less than 10 seconds behind the winner in Spa after 50 laps, you can imagine that the pace is decent.
But I’m quite happy with the overall performance, a bit disappointed with the position, I would say, because the target was not to finish before P7, but overall, the pace was OK, “
“And I have the feeling that even from Friday, if you have a look at the picture of Friday morning, that everybody was thinking that Max will fly and win the race, even with the penalty, and that Mercedes was struggling like hell on FP2 or FP1, I don’t remember. “
“And they are back, because at the end of the day it’s so tight that we are speaking about one or two tenths per lap, and 10 seconds over 50 laps, it means that if you are able to fix a small issue or to make a small step in terms of setup or whatever, that it’s making a huge difference at the end in terms of classification.
And it’s probably the good side of the championship today, that you have 4 teams in the race, 7 drivers, you have 6 drivers in 10 seconds at the end today“
Looking ahead, Vasseur expressed optimism for the upcoming races, noting that several tracks suit Ferrari’s characteristics, adding: “But to fix the bouncing is a step in performance. Yeah, for sure that we are pushing like hell to bring something and we will do it as soon as possible. We have also I think a good sequence of track for us with Monza, Baku Singapore
These are I think good tracks for the characteristic of the car. The most important is to score points and it was the target coming to Spa to not lose points on McLaren and Red Bull and we did it and it will be the same target in Zandvoort “
“Because I’m convinced that the next three or four races after these two will be much better for us. And I would say that it’s I think today it’s a very good example for everybody because that Mercedes was really struggling on Friday and fixing the, when we say struggling is that they were probably at the back of the pack but for two tenths.”
“We are pushing like hell to bring something”-Vasseur explains the team’s efforts to save their F1 2024 season
