Faced with disappointing performances following the introduction of a new floor, Ferrari is considering a thorough analysis to decide on the right parameters for the car at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Ferrari, which has failed to place both its drivers in the points in recent races, must correct this issue as soon as possible.
A new floor that has caused problems
Seeking to maintain their position as the second team in the constructor’s championship, Ferrari introduced new parts to their car, including a new floor at the Spanish Grand Prix. Unfortunately, these changes worsened the existing bounce problems, affecting the car’s speed in the fast sections of the tracks.
Carlos Sainz, driver for Ferrari, expressed his concerns about the time loss it could involve. The new issues with the car had forced the team to adjust the car settings in hopes of reducing the rebounds. “We will rebound in corners 4 and 11 (in Hungary),” Sainz confides, “but until a better solution arrives, we may have to live with the rebound for a while. On high-speed circuits, we may have to use the old floor because otherwise, the other one is undriveable.”
Fred Vasseur, the director of Ferrari’s team, indicated that the team would carry out a detailed analysis of the two types of floors before deciding which one to use for the races in Hungary and Belgium. “We must analyze the weekend in-depth and consider that Silverstone is by far the most aggressive circuit in terms of rebound, with its very high-speed corners,” he explained last week. “We will have time to discuss and decide for Budapest.”
A problem that Fred Vasseur cannot identify.
Although these concerns persist from Spain, Fred Vasseur still seems to be looking for the cause of such rebounds. The correlation is correct, the correlation with aerodynamic support is correct,” confirms the team principal. “It’s still a question mark for everyone and sometimes the rebound just appears like that. It’s quite difficult to have a correlation because there is no rebound in the wind tunnel. We all have indicators, but we cannot anticipate if one part will produce more rebound than another. Knowing if this will have a negative impact on performance is another story,” admits Vasseur.
He claims, however, that it is an aerodynamic issue for which Ferrari has many solutions, although their implementation takes time. « We changed all the aerodynamic parts and the bounce appeared in Spain,” he explained. « To solve it, there are tons of solutions, with or without compromising performance. We have to race with the current car and as soon as possible, we will bring improvements reducing the bounce,” he added.
A problem that is not new for the team since they had suffered from the same issue at the same period last year. « We had exactly the same situation last year, almost at the same stage of the season – Silverstone, Budapest, and Spa,” Vasseur added. « We stopped at Zandvoort, took stock of the situation, and recovered well in the following weeks. »
For the occasion, the team will therefore bring the two floors to the Hungarian soil: the floor used since Spain and the one used in Imola. The goal is to be able to observe which floor is most suitable for the Hungarian and Belgian circuits. With very different races in terms of characteristics for the coming weeks, a floor change can be decisive in this end of the mid-season.
