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'First Ferrari upgrades at Imola, also new parts for Verstappen'
- Corwin Kunst
With China and Miami, we have two sprint races behind us and with the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the start of the European season is just around the corner. And there the necessary updates are expected. At least Ferrari will bring its first update of 2024, Red Bull Racing will introduce new parts and Oscar Piastri's car will be, as Zak Brown referred to it, 'McLaren Light'.
Sprint race weekends are often not the most ideal time for teams to come out with a bucket of updates. Indeed, only one 60-minute free practice session is available to test the new car. In fact, late Friday afternoon (local time) it is already directly time for sprint qualifying. Most racing teams will therefore have saved up most of their updates for the weekend at Imola.
McLaren decided not to wait for that and took to Miami ten updates for the car. Those updates were mainly on Lando Norris' car and it paid off. The 24-year-old Briton won his first race ever in Formula 1. In Imola, Piastri will also get the full package, team principal Andrea Stella confirmed afterwards.
Upgrades for Ferrari and Red Bull
Ferrari largely kept their upgrades in its pocket this season and hopes to take another step forward at home. They will have to, because the competition is not standing still either. Not only McLaren introduced a lot of updates (in Miami, that is), but also constructors' leader Red Bull Racing arrives with performance updates at last year's Grand Prix, which was cancelled due to flooding.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were given a large aerodynamic package earlier in Japan and now, according to Auto, Motor und Sport, another further upgrade will follow.