Ferrari presented the car for the 2024 season. Last year, the Italian stable was the only one able to beat Red Bull in a race, but it was only once and overall Ferrari finished third in the championship. He will undoubtedly want to improve this year.
The previous model’s unpredictable handling and high tire degradation initially led to wildly fluctuating form from race to race. The car often had enough speed for one lap, but lost race pace.
In the second half of the season, his driving characteristics improved and it was possible to largely eliminate the problems with tire degradation. As is usually the case, the interplay of several variables is behind this turnaround. For one thing, the season-long aerodynamic development helped, adding the necessary amount of downforce, changing the power delivery of the hybrid system and the course of the torque on the corner exits so that it was kinder to the tires. In Zandvoort, Ferrari tried the single-seater setup, which improved its balance. Last but not least, the influence of the introduction of a new, more robust tire design at Silverston cannot be overlooked.
The new Ferrari model can build on this course set in a positive direction and on several strengths of its predecessor, which mainly consist of stability on brakes, excellent traction when exiting slow corners and speed on straights.
During the redesign of the front part of the car, the previously subtle tip of the nose cone grew in width and slightly in height. We saw a similar transformation on the single-seater of the Alpine team.
The flaps of the front wing decreased (1) five vorticity generators and vorticity on (2) of the corners of the end parts will change due to the elaborate folds of the flaps in the places where they connect to the vertical side of the wing.
Push-rod front suspension and pull-rod rear suspension remain. Ferrari also evaluated alternative configurations, but did not find a significant enough advantage in them to justify changing the proven concept.
The increased position of the internal grip will have an effect on the kinematics and especially on the aerodynamic properties (3) of the front of the upper A-arm. At the same time, the position (4) steering tie rods.
The aerodynamic wishbone covers form a cascade of wing elements that direct the flow of air to the floor and sidewalls.
Last year in Spain, the Scuderia deployed new sidewalls, which marked a departure from the current design direction and a leaning towards the majority trend of toboggan sidewalls. But it was a compromise solution, because the limitations given by the chassis design limited the possibilities of aerodynamic development and did not allow adopting, for example, full-fledged sides in the style of Red Bull.
“Once you decide you need a different shape (body, editor’s note) to achieve a different goal, the position of the electronics, the design of the chassis, and the position of the lower side impact structure quickly become an obstacle. In our case, that would mean building a new chassis and a new gearbox – essentially a completely new car – which cannot be achieved during the season for many reasons,” commented Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile at the time.
Location (5) side impact structures on the monocoque is a decision that, once made by the designers, cannot be changed. For the SF-23 model, they decided to place the lower side impact structure at the maximum height allowed by the regulations, because for their aerodynamic concept it was advantageous to leave the upper surface of the front part of the floor cleaner and the massive side body covered the impact structure anyway. However, when the decision was made to change the design of the sidewalls and deepen their undercuts, the high-set crash structure limited how much the surrounding bodywork could retreat.
The new SF-24 chassis, unlike its predecessor, already has the lower pair of side impact structures integrated into the floor, so nothing prevented the undercutting of the sidewalls from deepening. Such a design is more aerodynamically efficient and more advantageous in terms of loading the rear of the car than the original Ferrari sidewall concept, but it also brings a new challenge – the challenge of how to work with the flow created behind the front wheels. Until now, Ferrari has used the shaping of the area under the intake opening of the sidewall, through which they increased the pressure in front of the sidewall and thus diverted the dirty air away from the rest of the bodywork.
(6) The lower edge of the side entrance opening is advanced, but nowhere near as raised as in the case of the new Aston or Red Bull.
Under the main side entrance hole was preserved (7) the entrance of the channel, which leads to the upper side of the sidewall the air flowing around the side wall of the monocoque. Its task is to prevent the growth of the boundary layer on the sides of the monocoque.
The sides of the toboggan have a (8) gutter, which, unlike similar competing solutions, only starts in the rear parts of the sidewall and is relatively shallow.
The bodywork of the engine cover underwent a no less significant transformation. Its uppermost section continues to be ultra-slim, thanks to a slim arch guard design to create the least possible flow blockage to the rear wing.
Behind the pilot’s shoulders, however, they grow out of the engine cover (9) tunnels for the removal and release of hot air from under the bodywork – a de facto standard design element of most current single-seaters, which Ferrari resisted for a long time.
Ferrari aerodynamicists are traditionally creative in the cockpit area. For the SF-24 model they came up with new (10) blades connecting the halo with (11) through the outlet opening of the mentioned boundary layer cleaning channel. On the contrary, it completely disappeared (12) the wing in the shape of the letter “L”, which grew out of the protective arch on last year’s model, also disappeared (13) horizontal ailerons connecting the edges of the cockpit with the protective arch and are also absent (14) wing elements on the halo. The rear view mirrors were also lost (15) outer wing cover.
