Saint: “The Ferrari of 2024 is completely different, the goal must be the titles”

The new Cavallino 2024 is ready and has gone through its development phase in the wind tunnel and in the Maranello simulator. In the latter, the team’s two drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, had the opportunity to drive it – always in the simulator – and the Spaniard confirmed that it is significantly different from this season’s Ferrari SF-23.

Although Sainz was unclear about 2024 and admitted that the Scuderia’s goal should be the championship, he said that the SF-23 had several important virtues that he would like to see in Project 676.

On the other hand, he added that some of the virtues of the SF-23 – which won seven pole positions in 2023 – may have to be sacrificed in order for the new car to be fast on all tracks and especially at race pace. It has usually suffered this year.

“The 2024 car will undoubtedly behave differently than that in the simulator SF-23, But until we get it on the track with 100kg of fuel and used tires it will be impossible to see how it behaves on the tires, how it behaves at race pace and how that affects our speed.”Sainz claimed to Italian Motorsport.

And he continued: “We’ll only find out during the track tests in Bahrain.” In the meantime, we can work in the wind tunnel to make it faster and try to improve it. We tried to get as much momentum as possible this year, especially in the second half of the year, and we did a better job of that. It’s almost surprising that such fluctuations in performance can occur, but that’s how it is today F1.

Now we need to focus on understanding the reasons why the car is so strong in certain conditions, but weak on other tracks and in other types of corners. There are aspects of it SF-23 which I would also like to see in the car next year. Like, of course, its straight-line speed, its braking behavior and its performance in 90-degree turns and tight corners.

I also think one of their strengths is their response to curbs. So the car has very, very strong aspects. But if we want to have a car for the whole season, we may have to sacrifice some of these features to ensure we are fast everywhere, especially in the races.”added the 29-year-old Ferrari driver.

And when asked if the Scuderia can fight for the championship in 2024 given that Red Bull will not stand still, Sainz replied: “I think that should be our realistic goal. Yes. We will make it; Only time can tell. I want the team to believe it’s possible because I believe in it. We have long since proven that too McLaren I was able to take these steps over the course of the year, I am absolutely sure of it Ferrari can do it in winter”.

We remember that at the beginning of the year, McLaren didn’t even score a single point in the first two races. But from the Austrian GP in the summer, a three-stage further development of the MCL60 began and since then Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have achieved nine podium places and victory in the Qatar Sprint with the young Australian.

Saint concluded: “I trust this team. I have confidence in the ability we have at the factory to change things. There are still tracks where we are in pole position 0.3 seconds behind Red Bull. But that’s just one particular aspect of the car that’s really good. We just need to make it more efficient globally.”