GIORGIO PIOLA
FERRARI MAKING THE MOST OF UNUSUAL SUSPENSION
Ferrari’s decision to persist with a pullrod rear suspension, despite the prevailing trend among many Formula 1 squads to switch to pushrods for 2024, prompted questions about its ambition. Yet the Maranello team has made great strides with its car and cured many of the issues it faced in the tyre-management department, perhaps vindicating that call.
Ferrari has now made improvements to the aerodynamic characteristics of its rear suspension package and brought a new fairing to the upper suspension wishbone, with an extruded chord length to the rear leg. In its pre-race technical notes, Ferrari stated that this would bring “local flow conditioning improvements and positive interaction with surrounding components, bringing a small efficiency increase”.
The team had also prepared for wet weather through bringing a 2023-spec higher-downforce rear wing, with “more loaded” upper wing elements and a deeper beam wing in the event that the SF-24 required the tools to contend with any low-grip conditions. Only FP2 was affected by rain, as reports of inclement weather subsided over the remainder of the weekend, so Ferrari stuck to its 2024 allocation of rear wing geometries.
JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE
RED BULL’S SIDEPOD INTRIGUE
Much of the intrigue in launch season centred around Red Bull’s sidepod package, with the positioning of its air inlets obfuscated in the imagery of the RB20. Suggestions were that the team was to introdu
