You know that viral meme where you see a little man prodding an object with a twig and asking it to do something without it reacting? That being is there Ferrari SF-24. To make it easier for you to remember, we have included it on the cover. Don't thank us.
Putting aside technical analyzes that speak of amazing chronometric gains (I would like to cite them one by one to make clear certain writings that are just smoke and mirrors like-catchers, but I avoid), the truth is that the Maranello car is not reacting to the treatments administered by the engineering staff.
The package introduced in Imola had not given extraordinary chronometric results. Package (English is always so cool for web engineers) by 3-4 tenths said the well-informed who have the right connections. The result was a soft race, without a concrete possibility of winning.
Then came Monaco which Leclerc dominated thanks to his driving sagacity and because the car adapted to a unique circuit of its kind that will not return for the rest of the championship. In Canada that package never took hold, producing a disastrous weekend, one of the worst in recent years for the Prancing Horse.
Montmelò was a sort of repair test that Ferrari wanted to tackle, anticipating changes initially planned for Silverstone. Flop. Let's not mince words: the changes were not satisfying because even the Mercedes W15 was faster than the SF-24 on a track that knows how to judge which cars are really good.
![](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ferrari-9-jpg.webp)
Ferrari SF-24: a film already seen?
Ferrari's season is taking a slope that has already been seen in the past and which is very worrying: a shotgun start and performances that are slowly but surely declining.. “In Montreal it was the tyres, here it was pure performance that was missing”. This is Charles Leclerc's comment after the race. The Monegasque spoke more with facial expressions than with the sounds that came out of his mouth.
It is clear that something profound needs to be recorded. The SF-24, at least in the initial phase of the world championship, performed better in the race than in qualifying. Today it moves the same way. But it does so by regressing despite the efforts produced in the factory. There are teams that have not yet fired all their cartridges and at this rate there is a risk of being sucked in.
Among other things, Maranello is about to close the month of June in second position. Which means fewer hours of work in the wind tunnel and fewer CFD tokens given the binding mechanism of theAerodynamic Testing Regulation.
Technical but also strategic involution. Mount the hard he didn't pay Carlos Sainz. Nor did the first one make him stretch that much stint by Leclerc. Wrong tactic that follows the crazy one in Canada in which the wall complied with Charles' request to fit tyres slick with a track that was getting wet.
![Ferrari SF-24](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Ferr-1-jpg.webp)
Vasseur has been repeating for months to take advantage of the defaults others by putting pressure on their opponents. At this stage it seems that it is the Prancing Horse that is suffering from pressure that was self-imposed perhaps precisely with the victory in Monaco.
Stop, take a long breath, close ranks, quell the creeping tension that has now arisen between Sainz and Leclerc (we will also delve deeper into this topic) and understand what is not working to avoid getting definitively lost.
Ferrari didn't set out to win titles, it's worth remembering that. But that doesn't mean he can break the bank before mid-year. With patience and work, the Red Team has the possibility of returning to the good group: Red Bull and McLaren are not far away. But if we continue on this slope the train risks passing permanently. Wake up guys!
Photo credits: Scuderia Ferrari HP, Formulacritica