Ferrari has regained 30 points of downforce in their 2024 F1 challenger compared to last year’s SF-23 - Reports

Ferrari has reportedly made significant gains on the downforce of their 2024 F1 challenger, which will be revealed on February 13, 2024.

After a third-place finish in the constructors' standings in 2023, the Italian team has been working relentlessly on their 2024 challenger to battle for the championship. Their work seems to be making progress as, according to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari has shown a recovery of 30 load points, which translates to 9% useful downforce, making the car just under half a second faster.

An increase in downforce implies that the car's ability to corner at high speeds would be better. This was an advantage that the team enjoyed early in the 2022 season, which helped Charles Leclerc win in Bahrain and Australia. Their only competitor, Red Bull, was extremely good at top speeds but corners remained their weakness. However, the RB19 in 2023 was almost a perfect car.

Despite the reported increase in Ferrari's downforce and a gain of almost half a second, it will not be a major gain in real terms. The actual performance of the car will be dependent on a lot of factors, and since the team is trying to catch up with Red Bull, their development would play a role as well. The only advantage that the Prancing Horse might have over the Bulls is the provision of extra wind tunnel time.

At the same time, Ferrari will be hoping to outdo Mercedes in 2024 as the Silver Arrows finished narrowly ahead of them in the recently concluded season.

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"We are changing 95% of the components of the car": Ferrari team principal about their 2024 challenger

The 2024 season will mark the first season when Frederic Vasseur's input towards the new car will make a real difference. When he replaced Mattia Binotto at Ferrari a year ago, he had to inherit the car the Italian had assisted in designing.

Heading towards the 2024 F1 season, Vasseur has stated that they have changed 95% of the parts from SF-23. He said (via Autosport):

"Again, it's a matter of tenths of seconds. It means it's all 0.1 or 0.2% performance that we are looking for. It's not five [percent]."

"For sure, we have to do a step. I don't underestimate the step. We are changing 95% of the components of the car. Perhaps you can consider that it's a revolution."

Following the precedent set in 2023, Vasseur is expected to treat both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc equally. He believes this helped Ferrari make a comeback in 2023 after a horrible start to the season. After the final race, they were only short of three points off Mercedes for the second position in the championship.