Ferrari set to carry out two filming days in Fiorano

Scuderia Ferrari is set to bring its first upgrade package of this season to the track in order to assess its impact ahead of next weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Following a difficult 2023 F1 season, the Scuderia has made huge inroads with its 2024 F1 car. The SF-24 is a clear step compared to its predecessor, which has enabled the team to fight for top positions both in qualifying and race trims so far. The current car is more stable at the rear and less sensitive to the wind, and more importantly it looks after the tyres more gently than the 2023 machine.

In fact, Ferrari has turned the pattern on its head with the SF-24 as it has displayed more speed in race trim than in qualifying conditions, which is the complete opposite to the strengths of its predecessor.

Ferrari have managed to overtake Mercedes and Aston Martin in the pecking order, but Red Bull is still the field-leading team with McLaren also displaying impressive speed. With the latter outfit having introduced a B-spec car in Miami, McLaren now seems the second-quickest team on the grid.

Ferrari has hardly brought any upgrades to its car so far this season, but the Scuderia is expected to introduce a raft of developments on home soil at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix when the field assembles in Imola next weekend. While the upgrade package is expected to be of a smaller scale than what McLaren debuted in Miami, it will still be a substantial development step. The modified car is expected to feature a new sidepod design with several other components set to go through modification due to the new sidepod configuration.

According to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari will assess the impact of the new package this week with the Italian team set to stage two filming days on Thursday and Friday with both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz behind the wheel of the upgraded SF-24.

The sporting regulations allow teams to hold two filming days per year, where they can run a current spec car for 200km per day (up from 100km last year) on demonstration tyres and within parameters so restrictive, it prevents them from chasing performance gains

Speaking of the need of the upgrades, Charles Leclerc said: “As I’ve said many times, I think the season will be up to upgrades,” said the Monegasque, who completed Miami’s podium behind Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“We have ours coming very soon and that will define a little bit the rest of the season for us. So we’ve got to work hard and hopefully those upgrades will be as good as theirs and will help us to do a significant step forward.”