The Ferrari SF-24 was launched in front of a small audience of guests today, while the rest of the world watched online. It is the 70th car the company has built to take part in the Formula 1 World Championship. Attending the presentation at the Fiorano track were President John Elkann, CEO Benedetto Vigna and Vice-President Piero Ferrari, along with representatives of the partners, as well as team members, starting with Team Principal Fred Vasseur and the drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The busiest season ever, with no fewer than 24 races, gets underway next week in Bahrain with the only pre-season three-day test session, followed by the first grand prix at the same venue, on Saturday 2 March.
The SF-24 is the third car of the new Formula 1 ground effect generation, but it breaks with the tradition of the past two years, starting with the look of it. The design group, led by Enrico Cardile, aimed to give Charles and Carlos a car that is easy to drive and that reacts predictably, with as a starting point, the positive feeling the drivers had in the cockpit over the final few races of last season. The goal is to allow them to make the most of the power unit’s potential, combined with their undoubted skill behind the wheel.
The SF-24 is the third car of the new Formula 1 ground effect generation, but it breaks with the tradition of the past two years, starting with the look of it. The design group, led by Enrico Cardile, aimed to give Charles and Carlos a car that is easy to drive and that reacts predictably, with as a starting point, the positive feeling the drivers had in the cockpit over the final few races of last season. The goal is to allow them to make the most of the power unit’s potential, combined with their undoubted skill behind the wheel.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [Car sounds]
00:04 Yeah, the new car looks great.
00:14 Obviously, it's always a very special emotion to see the new car for the first time
00:19 as it's so many months of hard work here at the factory,
00:24 discussions back and forth with the engineers
00:28 just to finally see the end and to see the final product, the final car
00:35 just in front of my eyes feels amazing.
00:38 So, the colours are nice, there's a bit more yellow
00:42 and obviously we still keep the red, so I'm really happy with that.
00:46 On the simulator, the feeling is good.
00:54 The car is definitely a step forward compared to last year.
00:59 We've been focusing on the main weaknesses we had last year, as we do every year.
01:05 And for now, the car and the simulator have been reacting extremely well.
01:09 But there's obviously another important part to all of this,
01:12 is how much it correlates to then the real car once we put it in Bahrain
01:17 for the first time on the track.
01:19 So, this will be a crucial moment.
01:22 That will tell us whether we did a good job for this season.
01:26 But until now, so far so good
01:29 and everything we've tested on the simulator was positive.
01:32 I think last year was a very difficult season for the team.
01:40 However, we have worked extremely well
01:42 and it was very clear the direction in which we needed to work
01:48 in order to achieve better results this year.
01:51 And I'm sure that the team has done a great job.
01:54 So, the few difficulties that we encountered during '23,
02:00 I'm confident that they will not be there in '24 anymore.
02:04 And that should be a good sign.
02:06 I think the main area where we had to work on
02:13 was the sensitivity to the change of conditions.
02:17 We had a very peaky car last year,
02:20 where it was very strong whenever we had all the perfect conditions.
02:24 But whenever one of these factors,
02:26 whether it's temperature, wind, speed, force or direction,
02:32 it will have a huge impact on our car.
02:35 And this, we wanted to change it for this car,
02:38 for it to make it better and easier to drive,
02:41 as it was very difficult whenever it was windy conditions.
02:45 And this is something that I would like to see changed for this year.
02:50 It's always impossible to predict
02:52 whether we will be closer to our main competitors or not.
02:56 Formula 1 is obviously a relative sport,
03:00 but at the same time we are focusing on ourselves.
03:03 And from one year to the other,
03:05 we always try to look at what we can do better as a team
03:08 without focusing too much on the others.
03:11 We don't know where the others are at in terms of development,
03:14 but we are very confident that we will be able to do better.
03:18 So we will have to wait for the real first laps
03:23 before judging where exactly we are.
03:26 Thank you. Thank you for the continuous support
03:34 you've been giving me and the team during all those years.
03:38 We've had very good years, we've had years that were more difficult,
03:42 but one thing that never changes is your support towards us.
03:46 And this helps us a lot, so just a big thank you to always be there.
03:50 And I really hope that the car this year will give us and you more satisfaction
03:57 with hopefully many more wins and more podiums.
04:00 See you on track.
04:01 [END]