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Charles Leclerc reveals that Ferrari’s increased level of bouncing has led to more extreme set-ups to counteract it.
Leclerc believes Ferrari has made true progress with its upgrades to its SF-24. However, the side effect of bouncing has hidden the progress made to its 2024 challenger.
The Maranello team introduced a new floor to the Spanish Grand Prix. This update was the start of the bouncing issues, being at its worst in high-speed corners. Both Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz complained of the unpredictability from the SF-24.
The Scuderia decided to revert its floor to the Imola-spec for the British Grand Prix. This was to limit the level of bouncing around the medium-high speed corners around Silverstone.
However, Ferrari believed that they would have wasted a lot of resources if they abandoned the new floor. Therefore, the Maranello team introduced a revised version of the new floor for Hungary and Belgium to reduce the bouncing.
Team boss Fred Vasseur says Ferrari are “pushing like hell” to solve the bouncing issue after the summer break. Zandvoort will be the test to see whether the Italian team has done it.
Hidden potential in SF-24
Leclerc says that the bouncing issues has hidden the true performance of the SF-24. The Monegasque firmly believes progress has been made on the aerodynamic side of the car. The Ferrari driver spoke to Motorsport.com to explain:
“From Spain onwards, I think this was more the turning point where we brought something on the car, which the numbers, as I’ve always said, were there.
“However, it induced quite a lot of bouncing that we’ve been struggling with. And on my side, specifically, I went very aggressive in the last four races with set-up, especially, trying to find solutions for that.”
Bouncing has caused unpredictability
Both Leclerc and Sainz feel they can’t push the SF-24 to the maximum due to the bouncing. The unpredicatability has caused more room for error, as seen with Leclerc during practice around the Hungaroring.
“I’ve always been [aiming] to go for the last hundredths, and I think this is the approach that pays off whenever things are as they should be.
“Whenever you have a car, that is bouncing, by example, you cannot go too close to the limit because the car is doing more unpredictable things, and you’ve got to keep more margin.
“Which is something that I know I’m a bit… yes, it’s not my approach, and so always, I’m going to pay a little bit more of the price whenever these things happen.
“However, I don’t think that this was the main issue in the last few races. It was more about putting the car in very extreme places in order to get something out of it and to understand and that was the main reason of the lack of performance of the last few races.
“I will put that mostly on bouncing. The bouncing is what created the inconsistencies that we have seen in the last few races, and made us struggle a bit more than before that.”
Feature Image Credit: Rudy Carezzevoli via Getty Images