Charles Leclerc took his third victory of the season in commanding fashion at the US GP. The 27-year-old controlled the race from the first lap, enjoying a comfortable pace advantage over Red Bull and McLaren. Looking ahead, Leclerc wants to maintain this form and see more improvements on the SF-24.
Ferrari prove that unique development strategy was effective
Ferrari were the only top four team without major upgrades for the Circuit of the Americas. Initially, this news generated plenty of concern amongst the Italian outfit’s supporters.
After all, McLaren (having dominated in Singapore) were introducing a raft of modifications to the MCL38.
However, Ferrari resisted the temptation of bringing upgrades to a Sprint race weekend. Having brought new components at the Italian GP, the Italian squad have been waiting for a traditional circuit to test their efficiency.
Baku and Singapore, the two tracks after Monza, are slightly unorthodox – making it difficult to make any conclusions about upgrades.
That is why Ferrari’s 1-2 finish in COTA is so significant.
It confirms that their wind tunnel correlation problems are resolved, whilst also giving the factory in Maranello the green light to finalise their next sequence of upgrades.
Leclerc outlines strategy and targets for rest of 2024
Charles Leclerc explained the team’s approach after his Texas victory, whilst also emphasising that Ferrari want to continue progressing:
“Now we are still targeting the title. It’s a long way to go, but it’s a good start to this triple header…
“We’ve said since two or three races [ago, when] we brought a few upgrades – we were always waiting for Austin. Because it was going to be the real test for those upgrades.
“And he seems to be working all good. So that is positive for the future. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be having every Sunday the way it’s been today.
“But it means that we are working in the right direction and that can only be positive.
“So I hope we can reproduce these kind of results more often.”
As reported previously on LWOS, the Italian outfit are confident about their trajectory for the next twelve months.
Even during the summer break, when the SF-24 was still suffering from a variety of limitations, team principal Fred Vasseur insisted that better times were ahead.
This confidence has proven well-founded, with Vasseur also explaining in previous months that Ferrari are encouraged by the wind tunnel data for their 2025 challenger.
Although it would be unwise for the Scuderia to get ahead of itself, there are clear reasons for encouragement. The aerodynamic instability and bouncing caused by the Spanish GP updates have been eliminated.
In place of these weaknesses is a more well-rounded machine that can look after its tyres over a race distance.
With only one-lap qualifying pace remaining as a major weakness, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz can realistically target Ferrari’s first constructors title since 2008 this year.
