Ferrari has revealed its new F1 car for 2024, the SF-24, with which it will try to be more competitive than last year, fight for wins more often and try to be a bigger threat to Red Bull, who dominated last season.
Ferrari revealed the new SF-24 at its base in Maranello with the release of several studio photos that reveal major changes compared to last year’s SF-23.
Last year, Ferrari was very fast in qualifying, but in the race they dropped significantly in competitiveness due to poorer use of tires compared to their rivals.
In Singapore, Sainz was the only driver who beat Red Bull last year, and with the new SF-24, Ferrari tried to keep the strong points of its predecessor, such as excellent traction in slow corners, behavior over curbs and speed on the straight.
The car has a slightly wider and more rounded nose than its predecessor, and the lower side safety structures have been moved into the floor to free up more room for airflow under the side cooling intakes, modeled after Red Bull and McLaren.
The shape of the sides continues the evolution that Ferrari introduced last year at the Spanish GP, where they moved even further from their initial concept at the start of 2022 with the F1-75 car, without the deep channels on the upper surface that now form a falling ramp towards the rear end.
Unlike most of the cars presented so far that followed Red Bull’s and McLaren’s example with front pull-rod suspension, Ferrari remained faithful to the push-rod concept while the rear suspension remained pull-rod since Ferrari did not discover the big enough advantages of the push-rod concept to make that big change.
“The first presentation of a new car to the world is always a very exciting moment for me and the drivers, even if we are all already thinking about the moment when we will face our rivals on the track,” said team boss Frederic Vasseur.
“This year we have to start where we left off at the end of last season, when we were constant challengers, with the aim of constant improvement in all areas.”
“We are facing the longest Formula 1 season ever and Charles, Carlos and I agree that we need to be better and more efficient in the way we manage the races, making bold decisions, to get the best possible result in every race.”
“It is often said that your fans can give you extra support and that will definitely be true in a championship that will be very close and we are proud to be able to count on our ‘tifos’ from all over the world.”
Leclerc and Sainz make up Ferrari’s driver line-up for the fourth consecutive year, but this will be Sainz’s last season as Hamilton joins the team in 2025.
