F1 News: Ex Ferrari Boss Opposes Frederic Vasseur’s Masterplan for 2024 by Shifting Focus Onto Biggest Hurdle

When Frederic Vasseur took charge of Ferrari in 2023, he was taking over a team that was already struggling on multiple fronts. So the blame for Ferrari’s drop in the 2023 constructors’ standings to P3 can’t really be put on Vasseur. SF-23, although not slow over one lap pace, struggled to maintain the optimum operating window. The lack of front-end grip, a thin optimal operating window, and the car’s appetite for the Pirelli rubber all contributed to Ferrari‘s struggles in 2023. However, Frederick Vasseur has a master plan up his sleeve to get Ferrari back to the top in 2024 and beyond.

In a recent analysis of the team’s prospects in 2024, former Ferrari boss, Peter Windsor shed light on the real issues plaguing Ferrari that won’t be solved by hiring more people as part of Vasseur’s master plan. Ferrari faced huge criticism from Italian media after the 2023 Netherlands GP. In response, team boss Frederic Vasseur revealed his plans to heavily restructure the team and hire a lot of people in a bid to defeat Red Bull. But according to Peter Windsor, Ferrari’s issues lie elsewhere.

Windsor advises Frederic Vasseur to fix the car’s unpredictable nature

Ferrari was evidently very quick over a single lap in 2023. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz managed to secure 6 pole positions between the two of them. However, a consistent lack of front-end grip and lack of downforce didn’t give much confidence to the drivers. The poor tire degradation only made the situation worse for the Maranello-based squad.

Is hiring more people going to help Ferrari get out of the slump they find themselves in? According to Peter Windsor, NO! In his recent Live Chat on his YouTube Channel, Windsor outlined the real problem for Ferrari, “The issue is not [the] strategy, the issue is not the mechanics or the way the team is structured. The issue is the design of the car and getting enough usable downforce, efficient downforce into that car or out of that car so that they can be good on all types of circuits.”

“That’s the thing, and once you’ve got that, once you got that stable platform of performance then all the other stuff will fall into place. There’s too many good people there for that not to happen. But if they don’t have that stable performance from one race to another in the way Red Bull have… then it’s a problem for them, and you know they’re too used to not being quick and that’s another problem,” he added.

When Ferrari announced the launch date of their 2024 challenger, Vasseur claimed that the new car would be 95% new compared to SF-23. And recent reports have confirmed that Ferrari is going with Red Bull’s design philosophy to help improve their car.

Ferrari’s front wings will look similar to that of the RB19

Ferrari is set to introduce a revamped front wing for their 2024 challenger, drawing inspiration from Red Bull’s successful RB19. This move comes as the Italian team aims to improve the stability of the front end, a factor that proved challenging for drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz during the 2023 season.

According to a report from formu1a.uno, Ferrari is adopting an outwash design similar to the approach adopted by Adrian Newey for the RB19. The new front wing aims to provide a more stable platform, especially in challenging mid and high-speed corners, to improve overall performance.

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This is in line with the trend being followed by other teams on the grid, like Mercedes and Haas.

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This is obviously only a small part of the 95% new car Vasseur promised. But will it help Ferrari close the gap to Red Bull or even surpass them? Only time will tell.