Ferrari has rolled out a major upgrade package ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix it hopes will see it again take the fight to F1 rivals Red Bull.
The Scuderia is eager to bounce back after its worst grand prix for two years in Canada a fortnight ago when Charles Leclerc retired with an engine issue, whilst team-mate Carlos Sainz crashed out in an incident with Williams’ Alex Albon.
But even going into the race, the SF-24 was uncompetitive, potentially as the outlier Circuit Gilles Villeneuve did not suit the car.
From being in a constructors’ title-challenging position of just 24 points behind Red Bull ahead of the event in Montreal, it left the Canadian city 49 adrift after Max Verstappen scored his 60th career F1 victory.
For the race at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, the car will sport a new floor to aid airflow, a restyled engine cover and a circuit-specific rear wing to tackle the mid-to-high downforce circuits. There is also a new diffuser and halo, the latter aimed at “improving the management of the losses travelling downstream”.
Red Bull makes subtle changes as RB goes big
Red Bull has also brought updates but they, too, are specific to the Circuit de Catalunya, and are predominantly aimed at cooling.
On the RB20 there is a revised sidepod inlet, engine cover and floor body, whilst elements of the beam wing and rear-wing endplate have been subtly altered to assist local load performance.
Sister team RB, however, is also rolling out a considerable upgrade package that includes a floor, engine cover, rear wing, and sidepod inlet, whilst minor alterations have been made to the beam wing.
Mercedes, McLaren, Alpine, Williams all head into the weekend with unchanged cars.
Aston Martin has improved the front of its AMR24 on the suspension and corner, designed to ‘improve the local interactions between the suspension fairings and the external duct to improve local load’. Whilst the rear corner of the car has also been slightly modified.
Stake has made minor alterations to the rear wing and front corner, whilst on the Haas, there is a small winglet on the rear-impact structure.