Ferrari Focuses on Driver Confidence, Targets Bouncing

Ferrari targets driver assurance and seeks to eliminate vehicle bouncing for improved performance.

Ferrari will continue to introduce components to evolve its car in the second half of the season. The Scuderia’s goal is to address bouncing to boost drivers’ confidence and to prepare for a 2025 season during which it cannot allocate much budget to its last car under the current regulations.

“We are convinced that a tenth can completely change the weekend,” states Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari’s director. “This means that we are all striving to bring parts. And you know that the correlation between what we do at the factory and the track is not easy.”

“It was not easy for Mercedes, it is not easy for us, it has not been easy for the teams since the start of the season. We are also at the forefront of development. We have had the same regulations for three years and we have a sort of sum of performances.”

“It is increasingly difficult to chase the last tenth of a second and we are a bit more at the limit. We need to ensure that bouncing is key to success. Because it’s not just about performance, but mainly about driver confidence.

“If you gain a tenth through aerodynamic downforce and lose three tenths due to driver confidence or consistency, at the end of the day, the outcome is negative.”

Vasseur confirms that the Scuderia has made bouncing of its SF-24 a development priority: “Addressing the bounce is a step forward in performance. It is certain that we are striving to bring something, we will do it as soon as possible.”

“The problem is that when bouncing is not controlled, I think it is impossible to simulate bouncing because you can see from one session to another, when the wind changes direction or something, that something can appear or disappear.”

“We are all looking for marginal gains, we are all on the razor’s edge. This cannot be simulated in the wind tunnel. We have some measures to imagine whether we would be in better shape or not.”