The new 2024 Ferrari will solve Leclerc’s big “problem” this year

Like Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc feels no confidence at all at the limit when the front of his car lacks traction. They can be perfectly comfortable no matter how loose the rear of the car is, but they aren’t optimal if the front end doesn’t have the strength to grip on corner entry.

Because both front wheels have to bite the asphalt with the sharp jerk of the steering wheel at the entrance to the corner and turn with absolute directionality and precision to exactly the central apex that they have specified in their head. This year’s Ferrari SF-23 doesn’t achieve that – at least not normally.

Leclerc’s approach, particularly in qualifying tests, the absolute risk at the edge of the limit, is such that any subpar characteristic of the car is usually punished. The 25-year-old has often overreached in his pursuit of transcendence, and that is an important characteristic of his driving side.

Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, tries to get the best out of his car at every qualifying round and every race, within the framework of his set-up or problems. And his driving style is less dependent on his car’s possible understeer tendencies.

This has implications that go beyond driving on the racetrack. There are quite a few times when Leclerc – with the Scuderia’s blessing – has tried settings of the car that are more difficult to drive, settings that make the front more stable but generally make the car more nervous, but they may be able to do it Offer speed advantage.

Sometimes this pays off spectacularly, combined with his driving risk in a qualifying round with spectacular multiple placings. Sometimes not. At other times, Leclerc was ultimately forced to take over Saint’s arrangements.

In this context, a major thorn in Leclerc’s side this year has been the SF-23’s hypostrophic tendencies and the way the Monegasque approaches his setup and driving style. According to Italian reports, the problem is mainly due to the geometry of the SF-23’s front suspension.

Recently, Red Bull Racing’s brilliant technical brains, Adrian Newey, explained that the design of last year’s RB18 – which evolved into this year’s absolutely dominant RB19 – started with the suspension. Because this is an area that is difficult to change in the middle of a season, especially given the constraints now imposed by teams’ annual budget cap.

So while Milton Keynes gave the kinematics department complete freedom to design the suspension when the RB18 was born, the same cannot be said of Ferrari. The Scuderia didn’t hit the front suspension calculations quite as effectively, leaving last year’s F1-75 and consequently this year’s SF-23 with a weak front end.

This is a limiting factor, especially for Leclerc, which Scuderia will try to solve with the 2024 car. A car that will deviate from the design philosophy of the F1-75 and SF-23 in favor of a new concept that – many – it will be closer to the original conception of the dominant Red Bull RB19. And perhaps – again – it will be built on a solid front suspension philosophy.