F1 News: Ferrari Backtracks on Upgrades After British Grand Prix Failure

Saajan Jogia | Jul 7, 2024

Austrian GP - Ferrari / Ferrari Press Image

Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc confirmed at Silverstone that Ferrari will abandon the SF-24 upgrades from Spain and revert to the Imola-spec for the British Grand Prix.

The upgrade package introduced in Barcelona backfired as both drivers complained of bouncing problems on the car at high speed, which caused the overall pace to drop in the recent Grands Prix. For example, in qualifying at Silverstone, Leclerc didn't make it past Q2, while Sainz secured P7, one spot below Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.

Speaking about the team's decision to get back to the old spec, Leclerc told the media on Saturday:

“It was a little bit better and that is the main reason why we came back to the old package."

Addressing the recent drop in performance, he further stated:

“Well, I won't go too much into detail but for sure we've lost some performance since Monaco, as a matter of fact, and we are looking into it.

“That's also why we are doing all these tests.

“We came to the conclusion that it was the right choice to come back, for this weekend, mostly because of bouncing and we'll take the right decision for the future very soon. And what we've done yesterday was very helpful to help us take the right decision going forward.”

Sainz, on the other hand, explained that the upgrade package wasn’t serving its purpose. He said:

“It hasn't given us any extra performance, it's just given us a little bit more consistency in the high-speed given we have a bit less bouncing on that floor and we need to make the car as consistent or predictable as possible in the high speed knowing that obviously, we're not going forwards or backwards, we're just making the are a bit more consistent."

The Spaniard then addressed the issues plaguing the SF-24's performance this year and acknowledged that the older spec was more effective. He concluded:

"Yes, like this. From the beginning of the year, we already had a bit of bouncing so, it is still an intrinsic weakness.

“But the new one was clearly worse than the old one on Silverstone, I would say.”