Ferrari are under pressure to respond after Lando Norris and McLaren won the Miami Grand Prix last weekend. In the past couple of races, they appear to have edged ahead.
McLaren expected to struggle at the Chinese GP, but Norris actually ended up finishing ahead of both Ferraris and splitting the Red Bulls. Damon Hill has backed Andrea Stella’s team to catch the world champions first.
In Miami, the Woking outfit introduced an ‘astonishing’ upgrade package and took another step forward. In the words of Ted Kravitz, Ferrari were ‘green with envy’.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz out-qualified the two McLarens on Saturday, but Norris was the fastest driver in the field in the race. He won with the helping hand of a perfectly-timed safety car, but could have threatened Verstappen without it.
Ferrari will want to make sure they’re not left behind, particularly as they arrive at the first of two Italian races this season. Fortunately, they’re about to wheel out a ‘massive’ upgrade.
Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok has heard ‘gossip’ that Ferrari are ‘rather pleased’ with their package. Team principal Fred Vasseur expects them to challenge for multiple victories this year, and they already have one on the board after Sainz won in Australia.
Ferrari could gain more than three tenths on Red Bull
According to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari’s upgrades will be so extensive that they will effectively be introducing a ‘new car’. It seems similar in scale to what McLaren unleashed in Miami.
Staff at Maranello are expecting the kind of aerodynamic gains that could make the SF-24 three tenths quicker in qualifying. And crucially, they’re anticipating ‘even more’ progress in their race pace.
A report in April suggested the updates would only unlock two and a half tenths. So it seems as if they’ve exceeded their initial expectations.
Leclerc and Sainz will be looking to halt Verstappen’s 100% pole record at the start of 2024. The Monegasque produced Ferrari’s best qualifying effort to so far in Miami, lapping just 0.141s slower than the Dutchman.
The Prancing Horse delivered a disappointing showing on F1’s last visit to Imola in 2022. Leclerc dropped from second on the grid to seventh at the flag, and Sainz spun out.
Ferrari pursue Adrian Newey for 2026 F1 car
Both McLaren and Ferrari know that any progress they can make with their concept this year will stand them in good stead for 2025 too. That’s because there are expected to be hardly any changes to the regulations.
Red Bull’s departing chief technical officer Adrian Newey recently admitted that the team were ‘struggling’ to find more lap time. Having won 25 out of 28 races since the start of last year, they’ve almost perfected their car.
And with their rivals on a sharper upward curve, there could yet be a genuine title fight next year. Beyond that, Ferrari are looking to position themselves as the favourites for the beginning of a new era in 2026.
They’ve already signed F1’s most successful driver in Lewis Hamilton. And now they want to pair him with Newey in an ominous statement of intent.
Vasseur held talks with the designer in London last week before heading out to Miami. He’s offered him a ‘super consultant’ role that ‘seems to convinced him’.
The expectation is that Newey will leave Red Bull in February 2025. While he won’t be present at the start of a 2026 design process for a new team, he could still exert a significant influence.
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