After more than half a year of upgrades in vain! Ferrari switched back to the Imola kit and the speed increased instead of decreased. Leclerc exclaimed that it was unexpected!

Before the Dutch Grand Prix, the Ferrari F1 team adjusted the car back to the components used in the Imola Grand Prix to further seek solutions to the severe bouncing of the car. However, unexpectedly, after switching back to the Imola kit, team driver Leclerc unexpectedly won a third place in the Dutch Grand Prix. While this excited Ferrari F1 fans, they couldn’t help but think about a question. What role did Ferrari’s upgrades play in the past half a year? Could they have been doing negative upgrades all along? Next, Lin Shen Talks Sports will discuss this issue with everyone.

Regarding this issue, we can look at it from the data. For Ferrari fans, unfortunately, it is indeed the case in terms of results. Let’s first take a look at the results of the Ferrari F1 team in Imola, Monaco and previous races this season. Sainz won a race victory in Australia and Leclerc won in Monaco. The average results of the two are also very close.

Except for Sainz who did not participate in the race in Saudi Arabia due to an appendicitis operation, the average ranking of the two reached an astonishing 3.26, which is also the highest average ranking among the two drivers of all teams.

Since the introduction of upgrades at the Canadian Grand Prix and until before Hungary when they switched back to the Imola kit, the drop in the results of the two Ferrari F1 drivers is astonishing. Their average finishing position is only 9.88. They became the goalkeeper position in the points standings. The best result is only a third place won by Sainz at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari F1 team believes that the stability obtained from the new upgrade will make the car’s speed even higher.

According to the Ferrari F1 team, the new upgrade will give the car more downforce in order to increase the car’s grip and stability, which can make the car corner in a more stable posture and thus improve handling performance. However, the Ferrari F1 team overlooked a problem. That is, everything has limits. Similarly, blindly increasing downforce is not without cost. It is often accompanied by an increase in air resistance.

The upgraded Ferrari car not only did not solve the handling performance problem, but under the condition of increased air resistance, the car had a serious bouncing problem and the pressure on the tires also increased. It can be said to be spoiling things by excessive enthusiasm.

After the Ferrari F1 team decided to switch back to the old Imola kit, their bouncing problem was finally solved, which also made their results improve. In the last three races, the average finishing position of the two drivers is 4.5. Although it is not as impressive as at the beginning of the season, at least in terms of results, it is passable.

Regarding this question, there really seems to be no clear answer. We can only say that the research and development route of the Ferrari F1 team has gone into a wrong direction, similar to the Aston Martin at the Canadian Grand Prix in the 2023 season or the Mercedes F1 team that took a two-year detour with the “zero sidepod” design. Perhaps, this setback of failure is also an experience they must go through.

However, for the Ferrari F1 team, what is more worrying is how they determine what the future research and development route will be. Everything has returned to the original point, but they already know a wrong road that cannot be taken. But no one has pointed out the correct way out for research and development.