Ferrari’s first home race, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, is up next. After a volatile Miami GP, where McLaren surprisingly outpaced them, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will hope that the team’s big Imola upgrade package gets their number 2 spot back. The Frederic Vasseur-led team has been actively testing and working towards the 2.0 version of their SF24. According to former Ferrari manager Peter Windsor, their top speed could be the game-changer to challenge Red Bull.

The Miami GP began on an ominous note for the Maranello outfit. Charles Leclerc’s SF24 spun at the Turn 16 Exit in FP1 and came to a halt, bringing out the red flags. Though the Monegasque recovered well and secured P2 in the Sprint Race and P3 in the main race, Carlos Sainz struggled throughout the weekend, finishing P5 in both races. However, Peter Windsor believes that Frederic Vasseur will bring in the right upgrades for Imola.

“I can’t imagine they don’t know what they are doing and they’ve made a really good step over the winter in giving themselves a bigger sweet spot, more downforce, and they’ve taken away some of their top speed,” Windsor said in his YT Live, and added, “I’m assuming that the next step is to try to keep that amount of downforce but give them more top speed. In which case, it’ll be a real step nearer to Red Bull. That’s unbelievably difficult to do.”

He further added, “Ferrari, at this stage, are probably saying, ‘We just had a bad, messy weekend. Didn’t start well with Charles spinning and went worse after that even though we got P2’.” Despite this mess, Windsor believes that they will move in the right direction. “I think they’ll be quite bullish that they’re going in the right direction and I think they will be quite good. I have enough faith in them that they can give themselves a bit more top speed. And that should help them at Imola,” he concluded.

While Windsor is highly optimistic for Ferrari’s near future, Vasseur himself is keeping a low profile for the upgrades.

Frederic Vasseur undervalues Ferrari’s Imola upgrade package

Ever since Frederic Vasseur’s arrival, Ferrari as witnessed significant positive developments, including, Lewis Hamilton’s signing, Carlos Sainz‘s victories, and a quick turnaround to retain P2 in the championship in 2024. They are 52 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings and Imola presents a great opportunity for closing in on them on home soil. Vasseur, however, was very cautious when speaking about this.

“I think we have thought a lot about the development of this current car and if we take anything with us, it will never be a mega upgrade,” Vasseur said, as quoted by F1Briefings. “It is true that if you have four or five cars within one-tenth in qualifying, and if you can bring one-tenth with you, it will be a game changer for the weekend,” he further said.

The Frenchman then shifted focus onto how the on-track decision matters more than the upgrades. “But a large part of the result is also due to what we do with the drivers and the setup of the car during the weekend, just like the management of the tires,” he added, and further said, “We don’t just have to think about upgrades and development. It’s also the work we do on the track.”

Vasseur smartly diverted the expectations from the new upgrades to elsewhere. Nonetheless, the entire focus will shift to their performance in front of a welcoming crowd full of Tifosi in Imola.