Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur says his squad is «pushing like hell» to get its lingering high-speed bouncing problem under control.
Ferrari’s bouncing in high-speed corners was an unwanted side effect of the new floor introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix.
After back-to-back tests in Silverstone the Scuderia applied temporary fixes that alleviated the problem, but it is still seeking a permanent solution after the summer break.
While the issue was less pronounced in Spa, it is set to re-appear at the high-downforce swoops of Zandvoort unless Ferrari can roll out a solution after the mandatory two-week summer shutdown.
«Fixing the bouncing is a step in performance, so we are pushing like hell to bring something and we will do it as soon as possible,» Vasseur said after Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, in which the issue re-appeared on lighter fuel loads.
«I think it’s quite impossible to simulate the bouncing because you can see that from session to session when the wind changes direction or whatever, that the bouncing can appear or disappear, that it’s really marginal. We are all really on the edge of this.»
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
After a few tough weeks, Ferrari’s performance stabilised in Hungary and Belgium. But its compromised upgrade path still meant Charles Leclerc, who started from first, and Carlos Sainz struggled to finishing higher than fourth and seventh respectively – both moving up a place after George Russell’s disqualification.
But with all teams finding it ever harder to bring significant gains to their 2024 cars, Vasseur says Ferrari has to keep taking chances with its upgrades because of the massive difference every tenth of performance can make on the pecking order.
«We have some metrics to imagine if we’ll be in a better shape or not, but at the end of the day we are also pushed by the performance that we could gain with a bit more downforce sometimes,» he explained.
«I think we made huge step forward, but everybody made a huge step forward on this. The issue is that we are developing much closer to the limit, and at the end of the day we are always playing with this bouncing to stay close. And if you overshoot, you have to do a step back.»
Neither Leclerc nor Sainz were particularly happy with Ferrari’s performance at Spa, especially because Mercedes’ strong race pace meant the Scuderia was only the fourth-fastest team on Sunday, having already lost its second place in the standings to McLaren in Hungary.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Ferrari
«It’s good to see that everybody’s so close, but unfortunately, we are still the fourth-fastest team and the top three keeps changing,» Leclerc said. «We are consistently behind them, on a par with Mercedes, so we just need more pace.»
When Sainz was asked if Ferrari had made a step in the right direction last weekend, he replied: «When you see the pace of Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren in the race, I don’t think so. I think still [we lack] two or three tenths.
«With [Leclerc’s] car we started on pole and we still finished fourth. With my car I felt like we were on for a podium, and then as soon as everyone put their hard tyres on, you could see which pace everyone was doing.
«I felt very competitive and quick, then when they told me the lap times of the others, I was like: ‘No, not quite as quick as I wished.'»