Hamilton signing ‘huge opportunity’ for Ferrari

Ferrari say their new Formula 1 car “must be a consistent frontrunner” when the new season starts next month.

Team principal Frederic Vasseur said at the SF-24 launch on Tuesday that the team “must start off where we left off at the end of last season”.

Charles Leclerc took pole position at three of the final five races in the 2023 campaign.

“I expect the car to be a step forward in several areas,” said an optimistic Leclerc.

“From the impression I have formed in the simulator, I think we’re where we want to be.”

Ferrari started last season far from their expected level, with an uncompetitive and vicious car.

But they improved it progressively over the year to the extent that in the second half of the season their qualifying pace was a match for that of runaway world champions Red Bull.

However, the Red Bull retained a significant advantage in the races, which Ferrari hope they have reduced, although Leclerc was unlucky to miss out on a win in the penultimate race in Las Vegas as a result of the timing of a safety car.

Leclerc added: “The SF-24 ought to be less sensitive and easier to drive and that’s what you need in order to do well.

“This season the aim is to be frontrunners all the time and I want to give our fans plenty to cheer about, by dedicating race wins to them.”

Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz, who in Singapore last year became the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race in 2023, said: “I’m looking forward to driving the car to see if it correlates with the feeling I had from the simulator, which is that it’s the step forward we all want.

“The aim is to have a car that’s more driveable and therefore able to run at a consistent race pace, as these are the basic requirements to fight for wins.

“We drivers have done our very best to give the engineers precise feedback and I’m sure the workforce in Maranello will have listened to our needs.”

Vasseur said the team had also worked on further improving its operational management, a weakness in recent years on which a significant step was made under his guidance last year.

The Frenchman said: “The longest ever Formula 1 season awaits us and Charles, Carlos and I all agree we must be more clinical and effective in how we manage the races, making bold choices, in order to get the best possible result at every Grand Prix.”

The new Ferrari is a “completely new platform”, according to chassis technical director Enrico Cardile, who said that “every area of the car has been redesigned”.

Cardile added: “Our starting point was the development direction we adopted last year and which saw us take a leap forward in terms of competitiveness in the final part of the season.

“We have taken on board what the drivers told us and turned those ideas into engineering reality, with the aim of giving them a car that’s easier to drive and therefore easier to get the most out of and push it to its limits.”

The pictures released by Ferrari, which are likely to disguise key design areas of the car that the team want to keep under wraps for as long as possible, show a redesigned nose and front wing and extensively reshaped bodywork as the team seek to find the consistent, predictable downforce that was often elusive for them last year.