F1 News: Ferrari Struggles Likely To Continue In Hungary With Upgrades Coming Soon

Saajan Jogia | Jul 15, 2024

Fred Vasseur / Ferrari Press Image

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has confidently assured that the team is actively addressing the bouncing issue with the SF-24 F1 car, which has posed challenges for both drivers after the Spanish GP upgrade. He emphasized that there are "tons of solutions" to rectify the problem before the upcoming Hungarian GP.

The Maranello outfit got off to a great start this season by becoming the first team to challenge Red Bull at the front. However, the upgrades introduced in Spain have affected performance, courtesy of the new floor that is causing the car to bounce.

The issue becomes particularly noticeable on tracks like Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, known for their high-speed corners. However, Vasseur remains optimistic, stating that the problem is manageable as it stems from an aero issue rather than a fundamental flaw. Speaking to the media, Vasseur explained:

“We changed all the aero parts and the bouncing appeared in Spain.

“To fix it you have tons of solutions. You have solutions with a compromise on performance, you have solutions without compromise on performance – developing a new package. I think we are there now.

“We will have to have the next race with the current car and the sooner the better, we will bring upgrades that have less bouncing."

He added:

“Correlation is okay, the correlation on the downforce is okay.

“It is still a question mark for everybody and sometimes the bouncing is popping up like this. It is quite difficult to have correlation because you don’t have bouncing in the wind tunnel.

“We all have metrics and you cannot anticipate you can have more bouncing with this part than another one but to know if it will have a negative impact on performance is another story.”

Carlos Sainz clarified that the bouncing issue could affect the car's performance next weekend in Hungary, but for the race before the summer break in Belgium, it could become undrivable if not addressed. He said:

“We will bounce in Turns 4 and 11 [in Hungary].

“But until something better comes we may have to live with bouncing for a while.

“In high-speed tracks, we might have to run the floor of this [older] package because if not, the other one is undrivable.

“I trust the team will make the right calls circuit-to-circuit until a more solid package, which is not bouncing in high-speed and good in low-speed, arrives and then we will start thinking about battling the top three teams again.”