Ferrari is bringing a modified version of its latest car floor to Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix in a bid to get rid of the high-speed bouncing problems that have hurt it at recent races.
The Italian outfit has endured a troubled time since an upgraded floor arrived at the Spanish GP as part of a major update package.
While the new design delivered the downforce gains anticipated by the factory, it also triggered a return of high-speed bouncing – which left drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz lacking confidence in their SF-24 and losing time against their rivals.
At the recent British GP, following back-to-back tests in practice, the team elected to revert to its previous floor – which had been introduced at the Emilia Romagna GP.
The team said it would use the time after Silverstone to try to get to the bottom of what has been happening so it could make a call on whether it carried on with the new floor or had to stick with the older version.
Following the analysis done at the factory, team principal Fred Vasseur has revealed that the team has faith the new floor does bring a performance benefit so is worth persevering with.
However, modifications have been made to elements of its design that the squad believe will help minimise the bouncing issue.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s return to action, Vasseur said: “The week’s break prior to Hungary has allowed us to take an in-depth look at all the data from the past three races.
“We found that our latest upgrade package did indeed bring the expected benefits in terms of aero points. However, it also had side effects that meant the car was actually more difficult to drive.
“We have worked hard in the factory and so, in Budapest, we will bring an evolution of the floor which we reckon will give the drivers a car that will allow them to drive to the best of their abilities.
“This season, we are fighting to the nearest hundredths of a second and so Charles and Carlos must be able to give of their best and have confidence in the car if they are to get the best possible results in the race, but even more importantly, in qualifying when they need to push the car right to the limit.
“I am confident the package we bring to the Hungaroring will allow us to be frontrunners.”
The optimism about the floor will be good news for both Ferrari drivers, who had feared that the Prancing Horse could face a long period of trouble if it could not get to the bottom of the issues at play.
Speaking at the British GP, Sainz reckoned Ferrari would be left months behind rivals if it had to stick to the Imola-spec floor.
"It is clearly not good enough," Sainz said about his car in the Silverstone race. "We have basically the same car as in Imola and since Imola everyone has upgraded, probably added two tenths to the car and we have had to revert.
"We have lost two or three months of performance gain in the wind tunnel or performance we could have added in these three months, so clearly we haven't taken the right calls recently."
