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Ferrari chassis chief Enrico Cardile has promised the team’s 2024 challenger will be “a brand new car” as the Scuderia has effectively decided to start from scratch with the current aerodynamic regulations.
Following a promising start last year after the introduction of the ground-effect rules, and the threat of a title challenge, Ferrari lost its way for a variety of reasons.
Fully expected to regroup over the winter and mount a renewed bid to usurp Red Bull, the team has been found wanting with its SF-23 which was born with a weakness that was quickly identified but is proving problematic to eradicate.
It has prompted the decision to wipe the slate clean rather than continue to evolve, as would ordinarily be the case under the current rule set.
As to the issues with the current car, Cardile said: “We think that our main weakness is on the aero characteristics.
“It has been pretty clear (since pre-season testing in Bahrain) that we were not at the level we expected to be, the weakness was coming from there. So all the focus, all the effort has been on improving the aero characteristics of the car.”
Cardile has confirmed the comments from drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been aligned between the simulator, track, and the data gathered from the car.
That has at least allowed the team to see and understand what the drivers “are complaining about”.
He added: “We progressed a bit through the development of this car, improving some characteristics of the car, but the pace we are developing the car is obviously not satisfactory, because we are still far from the blue guys (Red Bull).
“This year has been crucial for us, putting a lot of effort into this year’s car, to better understand from where the weaknesses were coming from, and how to do a better job.
“We have kept developing the car in the wind tunnel since the summer break, and we will bring some updates in the next races but now (in the) wind tunnel we are fully focused on next year’s car.”
Cardile has promised it will be “very different” as the team recognised that in developing the SF-23 “some architectural choices we did were not right”, and were “constraining the development too much”.
Seemingly heading into a cul-de-sac with this year’s car, as was the case with Mercedes, Cardile said: “Next year’s car will not be an evolution of this year’s car, like this year’s car has been compared to last year’s car.
“It will be a brand new car – different chassis with different design, different rear end to allow our aero (department) to better develop the car to achieve their targets.”
That is a relief to Leclerc who, across the course of the recent Dutch Grand Prix weekend, was left bemoaning the fact he had “zero idea” as to how the car would behave each time he stepped into it.
“It’s great to hear that,” said Leclerc, when asked by Speedcafe about Cardile’s comments. “I can’t wait.
“First, I’ve a season to finish, but we can only go in another direction because at the moment, honestly, the car is really, really difficult to drive. It’s just very, very difficult to be on the limit.
“As soon as you get close to the limit, you just really don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s a difficult situation.”
