Ferrari hopes the final part of its 2020 Formula 1 development programme will help it end the season leading the fight for fourth behind Mercedes and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
An underpowered engine and draggy car has caused Ferrari to slump from multiple victories and second place in the championship last year to scoring just two opportunistic podiums in 2020.
Charles Leclerc is its best-placed driver in eighth place in the drivers’ championship, while Ferrari itself is only sixth and – adjusted for changes to the point-scoring system – is on course to register its lowest points tally since the early 1990s.
Ferrari believes it has started its recovery from hitting “rock bottom” a few races ago and upgrades at the Russian and Eifel Grands Prix were a part of that process, with revisions primarily to the bargeboards and rear wing.
A new diffuser will be introduced at this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Algarve, which head of performance development Enrico Cardile says will complete the programme “set out over the past few months”.
Ferrari has made it clear that the development work this year is mostly about establishing the right path for 2021 as major car components will remain the same next year, although aerodynamic development is free.
Cardile said: “The most important thing is to get confirmation that our development is on the right track.
“Indications from the past few grands prix are positive and we hope the same will apply this weekend.
“We have to consider that, more than ever this year, development is aimed at the following season.
“All the same, we still expect to see a performance improvement with the SF1000: it would be very useful to at least find ourselves heading the group of cars and drivers currently fighting within just a few tenths for places four and lower.
“Only a couple of times this year have we been able to fight for a place in the sun on the second or third row and our aim between now and December is to be consistently fighting for those places.
“But then, precisely because this part of the grid is so close, it takes hardly anything to find yourself fourth or twelfth, but that’s all part of the game.”
Ferrari intends to overhaul the rear of its car for 2021. It has committed to spending its permitted development tokens on achieving that.
Cardile said this is to target the SF1000’s weakness not just because of aerodynamic rule changes coming in at the rear of the floor next year.
“Our belief is that the rear end offers the biggest margin for improvement,” said Cardile.
“I say that not just because it’s the area of the car where pretty significant changes have been introduced in the technical regulations, but also we believe that because of the way our car is laid out, we could really make significant progress.
“That’s why we’ve decided to spend our two tokens allowed in the rules, in this very area.
“Because next year, it will not be permitted to modify all the basic components of the car, but only some and the FIA sets a token allocation for each of them, with all teams having two tokens available.”
Cardile also suggested that Ferrari will try to complete as much of its 2021 development work this year.
That is because next year further aerodynamic testing restrictions will be put in place, so any time spent on the 2021 car will eat into preparation time for new technical rules in 2022, which is a much bigger opportunity.
Teams cannot start aero work on their 2022 designs until next year.
“It is essential that we know the concepts we are working on now are the right one, so as not to lose time in 2021,” said Cardile.
In addition to greater ATR restrictions, F1 will introduce a ‘balance of performance’-style inverse aero testing allowance next year whereby the lowest-finishing teams in the championship this season get more development time.
Ferrari is currently sixth in the constructors’ championship so would receive 12.5% more development time than expected champion Mercedes.
“The difference won’t be huge, but in Formula 1, each minute of testing, be it on track, on the test bed or in the wind tunnel, is precious,” said Cardile.
“However, I’m not joking when I say our aim is to make up ground this year.
“When we look at the standings, seeing ourselves down in sixth place hurts and we are well aware that it is not a position worthy of Ferrari.
“We absolutely want to improve, for us and for our fans who still support us with passion, even at difficult times like the ones we are going through now.”
