S Poddar
Ferrari will take a small upgrade to its car into the upcoming Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, which is the Scuderia’s last update of the 2024 season. The team remains in contention in the constructors’ championship, 75 points behind McLaren with seven races remaining.
Ferrari’s team principal Fred Vasseur has confirmed that the latest package update would be the last for the season, not only for Ferrari but probably for everyone. As the car of 2025 starts being prepared, this will probably be the last season push for improvement.
“We’re working on the next car already, but we will update only small things for the next race,” said Vasseur ahead of the race at Circuit of the Americas. “It will probably be the last one for us, and for most of the other teams as well. The grid has been very tight in the past few races, and every small improvement can still make a difference.”
Ferrari had an extremely challenging weekend in Singapore over the last weekend, where both drivers had reasonably tough qualifying sessions. Charles Leclerc struggled with tire management and then lost his one good lap time deleted from Q3, while Carlos Sainz crashed out to end the session quite abruptly.
From the grid, the team decided on split strategies in an endeavor to score more points, starting from ninth and tenth place. Sainz came in early in a bid to take advantage of clear air after losing a few places in the first lap. Leclerc, on the other hand, extended his first stint to do just one stop much later in the race.
Leclerc’s strategy was enough to bring home fifth, but he could easily have taken fourth from George Russell with the end of the race. Sainz finished seventh, defending well on very worn hard tires.
The strategic split, Vasseur explained, must have been right to be able to anticipate the race scenarios. “Starting on softs, you may be able to gain one position, but then you are obliged to pit around lap 12 or 15, as we saw with Lewis [Hamilton]. There is not much leeway there,” he said.
“By starting on mediums, we had the opportunity to stretch our race and get used to a different race scenario. I think it was a good strategy. To split the cars, with one making an early stop and the other running longer, was the right call. It worked well in track position.”
With titles mathematically still in play, Ferrari now looks to get as much performance out of the remaining races while not letting preparation for 2025 slip through their fingers. Now McLaren and Red Bull have stolen headlines this season, but Ferrari’s consistency keeps them in the fight: even the smallest upgrades might prove crucial in the champian battle tightenning.
The next race in Austin will be a test particularly crucial for Ferrari’s updated package. They are moving to the future, yet still hard-wired to bring their standing in 2024 up to the next level. As Vasseur said, it often happens with a last stretch of the season and even the smallest shifts that can make a lot of difference, and Ferrari is going to strike gold from this final push.
