Ferrari to continue with updates this year after finally finding "right direction"

Ferrari

Ferrari to continue with updates this year after finally finding "right direction"

SF1000 has been upgraded at the last two grands prix

Ian Parkes

Wednesday 14 October 2020 09:29

Ferrari is to continue introducing updates to its troubled SF1000 this season after believing it has finally found the "right direction" with development.

Following a wretched start to the season, the Scuderia started to make improvements to the car at the Russian Grand Prix where there was a revised rear-wing endplate, while changes were made to the under-nose cape and bargeboards.

The positivity felt from those upgrades allowed Ferrari to then make revisions to the floor and additional alterations to the bargeboards for the recent Eifel Grand Prix.

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The upshot saw Charles Leclerc stun F1 by qualifying fourth which left even the Monégasque mystified, although he was unable to convert that into a podium, finishing seventh.

Team principal Mattia Binotto, though, feels a platform is now in place on which his team can continue to develop the car for the remainder of this season and going into 2021 when the regulations remain unchanged.

"I think we were not expecting a lot of difference," assessed Binotto. "It was a small upgrade, completing a package we started introducing in Russia.

"But I think they worked positively in the fact that they were correlating well with what we saw in the wind tunnel and back in the factory, and that is putting the car in the right direction.

"There will be further upgrades for the remainder of the season which will be important as well. For us, what is key is to continuously develop the car, but more important is the direction we are using is the right one for next season."

Leclerc's race was compromised by his first stint on the soft tyre which grained quickly in the cooler conditions before switching to the medium compound for the second and final stints, allowing him to be more competitive.

Despite the result, Leclerc emerged from the weekend feeling happy with the car overall. "We would have prefered to have finished higher up but looking back at the weekend there are positives," he said.

"I did not expect to be so competitive with the cold weather and the car was handling quite well so this is a positive.

"I think the small updates that we brought this weekend worked also, we moved in the right direction.

"It wasn't a massive step but it is what we were searching for, a small step in the right direction and this is also positive."

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