How Ferrari Turned Its Crumbling F1 Season Into a Success Story
Refining the downforce package of the Ferrari SF90 Formula 1 car changed the game completely for the Italian powerhouse.
As we come into the back leg of the 2019 F1 season, things continue to get exciting. We love how dynamic races can be with moments like the last couple of weeks leaving us in our tracks. Up until the last couple of races, prospective front runner Ferrari seemed to have been making critical error after critical error for the better half of the season. They struggled with the car’s setup and keeping the driver’s on track for a full race day. It was strange to see a team so prominent and successful struggle with such difficulty on tracks they usually dominate.
However, in the three most recent races, it seems Ferrari has completely turned a new leaf and reestablished themselves as the fighting force they are known for. The Belgian, Italian, and Singapore Grand Prix all resulted in race wins and pole positions for the team. Three back to back pole positions for Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari rookie, plus a one two finish in the most recent race for the team. That’s an amazing comeback. What changed? How exactly did the team get back on its feet? The secret sauce isn’t so secret: downforce. Thanks to the good folks over at Autosport on YouTube, we get to see exactly what changes the team made to put them back in the running for the top spot.
For context, Ferrari had been struggling in Grand Prix that put a test to high downforce, low power setups. The Ferrari team had built the car around the idea that high power and low downforce was key, yet they had struggled even on the higher power tracks in the beginning of the year. Due to the front wing simplification at the beginning on the season, the team hadn’t found the sweet spot for generating high downforce with the front end of the car. However, the team managed to fix a caped section onto the new nose design, which allowed for a higher speed, low pressure region under the front of the car. This design was originally popularized by Mercedes a few years ago.
In addition, Ferrari redesigned their floor, which included a new fin design and diffuser. Other than that, the team displayed amazing strategy to ensure that they would have their cars were setup for quick times in qualifying, while being able to block out race-biased cars in a tough-to-pass track like Singapore. Monza and Spa are high power tracks and Ferrari excelled, but the true proving grounds was definitely Singapore, being a high downforce track.
In the current standings, the Ferrari team is now only 133 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors championship, while Leclerc is now tied in points for third place with Max Verstappen. This leaves the young Ferrari driver only two races away from catching Valtteri Bottas in second place. What do you guys think of Ferrari’s comeback this season? Let us know in the comments below.
