Ferrari have surpassed internal expectations with their first planned upgrade for their 2024 F1 car, according to a report. The Scuderia are hoping to challenge the sustained dominance of Red Bull this season.
Having finished third behind Mercedes in last year’s constructors’ championship, Ferrari have firmly established themselves as Red Bull’s nearest challenger this year. The gap between the two is just 21 points heading to the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend.
And according to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari now have a major upgrade in the pipeline. Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix after Verstappen retired and the team will hope to challenge for victories on a more consistent basis.
It’s unclear whether Sainz and Ferrari could have beaten Red Bull on pure pace in Melbourne. Verstappen, for his part, thinks he could have kept up with the Spaniard before his brake issue worsened.
While the Bulls have scored a one-two finish at the other three events, Ferrari have finished third on each occasion. And it wasn’t until Japan that one of their drivers failed to qualify on the front row alongside Verstappen.
Expectations for new Ferrari upgrade outlined
Ferrari will introduce three ‘big’ upgrade packages this year, with the first of those coming at Imola next month. They considered introducing some of the developments in Miami but will instead bolt on all of their new parts at the first European race of the season.
This ‘2.0’ version of the SF-24 will be stronger than the Prancing Horse first expected. The impact of the upgrade is set to be ‘massive’.
If performance on-track correlates with the data behind the scenes, then Ferrari expect to gain two and a half tenths overall. One tenth will come from ‘load’, with another tenth and a half through improved ‘efficiency’.
Ferrari making progress ahead of Lewis Hamilton arrival
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur said earlier in the season that he wants to contend for multiple victories this year, even if a championship challenge is far-fetched. Leclerc, meanwhile, is confident his team can put Red Bull under more ‘pressure’ soon.
The Italian marquee may have a chance of snatching a title from Red Bull next year, the final season with the current rules. In 2021, immediately before the start of the ground effect era, we saw Verstappen break the Mercedes stranglehold on the drivers’ title.
This would be a dream scenario for Lewis Hamilton, who will join the team in 2025 to replace Sainz. The 39-year-old is still gunning for an unprecedented eighth championship.
Ferrari look to be on the right path as they try to end a drought that stretches back to 2008. Having secured the sport’s biggest name in Hamilton, they want arguably its top designer in Adrian Newey in a new statement of intent. Could he be the man at the helm of their 2026 challenger?
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