The Monza upgrade Ferrari needs to escape the ‘trap’ it has fallen into

Ferrari has introduced an improved floor for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix in a bid to solve the bounce issues that have held the team back in recent races.

A new floor design introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix caused a difficult period for the Maranello team, as it meant the return of high-speed bounce to the car.

A further development of that concept was carried out in Hungary and the further changes at Monza should, the Scuderia hopes, help to finally see progress made again.

According to Ferrari performance engineer Jock Clear, the key to stopping bouncing is to control the last millimetre of movement, where the car is sucked close to the track and generates more and more downforce. It’s a ‘trap’ that many teams have fallen into.

“In the past, cars would always bounce off the ground,” he said. “But the plank was there, and we didn’t rely on that last bit of ground effect that this generation of cars relies on. So, it bounced off the ground, but the aerodynamics were never that critical.

“These cars have ground effect, and they’ve had it for the last few years. That simply means that when the car hits the ground, (the downforce) disappears completely. So you really have to be careful how aggressive that downforce is in those last few millimetres.

“It’s part of this genre of cars, and it’s a pitfall that we fell into earlier in the season. But we’re modeling it better now. We’re much more confident that we can now produce floors that we won’t have any problems with when we actually put them on the real car.”

What’s new with Ferrari at Monza

In addition to the new floor, Ferrari has made a number of changes to the SF-24, including front and rear wings and adjustments to the sidepods.

The new low-downforce rear wing is an entirely new design, with the team simply using the same specifications last season as it will in 2022.

The design now fits into the same family as the rest of the wings in its range of solutions, with just one centrally mounted support pillar.

As with the other downforce variants, the wing is supported on the crash structure side by a hemispherical structure that wraps around the exhaust.

The gooseneck connection at the top of the pylon is still connected to the DRS pod, but instead of forming an arch above the main plane, it is now merged with it to provide additional support.

Ferrari SF-23 rear spoiler

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

As expected with a wing designed for Monza, the mainplane and upper flap take up a much smaller percentage of the allowable box area than their counterparts.

This is even more true than with the 2022/23 variants, as the main plane has been further flattened and a smaller radius has been chosen where it meets the end plate.

The semi-detached tip section used on the other wings in the family of solutions this year has also been carried over this time. The recess in the rear endplate and the shape of the tip section have been modified to get the best performance out of the layout.

The rear wing isn’t the only way Ferrari is looking to reduce downforce and drag this weekend, however. The Scuderia is also using a single-element wing.

Ferrari SF-24 technical details

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The front wing has undergone a simpler overhaul for Monza, as the team aims to balance the car between front and rear, by adjusting the height of the wing’s upper flaps.

To accommodate this, the trailing edge of the top flap has been trimmed and the angle of attack of the flaps has been adjusted to suit the drivers’ preferences.

Ferrari last carried out a major update to the sidepods at the Spanish Grand Prix, having switched to the overbite intake solution and new bodywork a few races earlier at Imola.

As is usual with this type of bodywork modification, changes were also made to the floor, wing edge and diffuser. These changes all seemed to provide a net performance improvement, but resulted in a more inconsistent delivery than the previous configuration.

Ferrari hopes this latest update will fix some of the issues and provide a more consistent platform going forward.

Ferrari SF-24 technical details

Photo by: Franco Nugnes

Ferrari SF-24 technical details

Photo by: Franco Nugnes

Before we dive into the bigger changes, two more minor changes have been made to the SF-24 to improve front-to-rear flow.

The nose cams have been repositioned to better align with the suspension elements, while the outer wing mirror stem has also been shortened to work more effectively with the new sidepod bodywork.

This new bodywork incorporates a larger undercut and also adjusts the depth of the bodywork below the beltline, to increase flow to the rear of the car. This also further exposes the floor pan and the edge wing, both of which have also been refined.

These modifications make use of the new floor rails that have been reprofiled and aligned. The shapes of the boat tail and diffuser have also been thoroughly reconstructed.

Ferrari SF-24 technical details

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Ferrari SF-24 technical details

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

The leading edge of the floor has been modified, as have the changes made to the tail section of the floor rails. The edge wing is similar in general concept to its predecessor, but the geometry has been modified by the addition of a recess in the centre section.

The metal support brackets that act as a bridge between the floor edge and the edge wing have also been repositioned and redesigned to accommodate the changes and provide an efficient balance between support and flexion.