Ferrari announces final 2024 season upgrade for United States Grand Prix

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed that the team will make small improvements to the SF-24 F1 car for the upcoming United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). He claimed that as the season approaches its final months, the team is aligning itself with the development of the 2025 title contender.

Ferrari started the season with a strong showing, regularly challenging Red Bull for the lead over several impressive weekends. It initially led the fight against the dominant team until Mercedes and McLaren entered the fray.

However, following a mid-season upgrade at Barcelona, ​​Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have both experienced significant rebounding issues. A recent report revealed that the team attributed the problem to an anomaly in the wind tunnel, where data from the wind tunnel conflicted with the car’s actual on-track performance.

As the season progressed, Ferrari worked diligently to identify the underlying problem, facing numerous challenges along the way. A remarkable performance at the Azerbaijan GP, ​​where Leclerc took pole position and finished second, renewed confidence and suggested progress in reconciling differences between wind tunnel data and on-track results.

Now, however, for the race in Austin, the team plans to make small improvements, as it remains in the fight for the constructors’ championship, behind the McLaren team by 75 points. Speaking about the plan for the future, Vasseur told the media:

“We all know that we have already started the development of the next car, and we are trying to do our best to have small improvements in the next (race).

“I think it will probably be the last one for everyone; it will be true for us, but it will be true for the other teams.

“Now it’s so tight in the general classification in the last four, five, six races, if you look at the grid it can get tight and every element can make the difference.

During the race in Singapore, the team opted for different strategies from their ninth and tenth starting positions on the grid. Sainz made an early pit stop to regain clear air after losing places at the start, while Leclerc delayed his stop for a later point in the race. Ultimately, Leclerc finished fifth, competing closely with George Russell for fourth, while Sainz crossed the line seventh on worn hard tires. Vasseur explained the reason for the different strategies:

“To start (on) soft, maybe you can take a position.

“But if you want to be aggressive you will do lap 12 or 15 like Lewis (Hamilton) did – you have no other choice.

“At least to start in medium we had the opportunity to extend, the race scenario was a little different and I think it was a good strategy.

“But the fact that we split the cars to do an early stop and then another one that extended was also a good decision, I think, and it worked out pretty well because of the track position of the relay .”