Tech analysis | Uncovering the secrets of Ferrari and Leclerc's Monaco win

The SF-24: a soft car with a slingshot traction 

Since Friday’s FP1, the SF-24 seemed to perfectly suit the Monaco Circuit, especially in Leclerc’s hands. The car was extremely quick in all sectors, mainly thanks to some crucial technical choices made by the team. 

First of all, the team (like all the others) decided to bring the maximum downforce rear wing in Monaco, where the slow and challenging layout requires as much downforce as possible. The rear wing showed off a completely new design: as shown in the drawing below, it was characterised by a mainplane with a flat leading edge for almost its entire length, with a very small curve only at the connection to the endplate.

It had a very noticeable chord, in order to generate as much downforce as possible. The DRS flap was characterised by a smaller chord, but had a thick nolder on the trailing edge, to improve the connection between the high and low pressure zones behind the airfoil, increasing the local load especially at low speeds.

Finally, the rear wing was supported by a single pylon support, in line with the choices of the other teams.

Moving on to the rearview, two other interesting solutions can be spotted: the beam wing (2) and the "gills" for heat dissipation (3). As regards the beam wing, the team decided to adopt a maximum downforce solution consisting of two partially overlapping ("shutter") elements. The lower and upper elements have a very similar shape, with a very pronounced chord for almost their entire length, tapering only at the ends to generate the greatest amount of downforce possible. 

As regards the open slits on the sides of the engine cover, the objective was to evacuate as much heat as possible, avoiding high temperatures. In fact, the Monaco Circuit, being characterised by low speeds, does not allow optimal cooling of all the elements of the Power Unit, therefore increased air vents are necessary. Furthermore, the high temperatures expected, especially for the race, pushed Ferrari's engineers to adopt a more conservative solution, giving up a bit of efficiency (useless on this track anyway) to ensure the correct operating temperatures of the Power Unit.

Beyond all these aerodynamic choices, the greatest job has been made on the mechanical set-up: since the beginning of the year, it has been possible to appreciate how the SF-24 was able to run with a softer suspension set-up on the tracks that required it, also performing well on the fast sections of the track (as seen in Miami or Melbourne). 

Since this aspect is taken to the extreme in Monaco, the car behaved perfectly in every condition and on every compound: the very soft set-up allowed the SF-24 to perfectly absorb the bumps and dips of the circuit, giving both Sainz and Leclerc the chance to attack the kerbs (especially at the Portier and at the exit of the swimming pool chicane). Furthermore, the team decided to soften the mechanical set-up also longitudinally, in order to have a "slingshot" traction out of the slow corners. This strong point could be seen both during qualifying and during the race: in the last attempt of Q3, in fact, although Leclerc had improved in the 1st and 2nd sectors, he managed to do the best 3rd sector, proof of both a perfect drive and an extremely reactive car on the slow restarts of the Rascasse and the Antony Noghes. 

This correct calibration (especially of the rear suspension), together with a high level of downforce, allowed the drivers to put the soft tyres in the window of use very quickly in qualifying and to preserve the hard tyres throughout the race.

Even though Monaco is an atypical track, the P1 and P3 final result confirms the step forward made by Ferrari after the Imola weekend. During his interview after the race, team principal Fred Vassuer confirmed Ferrari’s positive trend since the Miami Grand Prix: “Well, if you have a look at the last three or four races, Miami, Imola, this one, Melbourne, I think we had one in between, we had everybody in one-tenth, even on the long run, because in Miami we did 40 laps to finish two seconds behind Max, and Imola it was 36 laps for six seconds.”  

Moreover, he thinks that the balance among the Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull will strongly depend on the different layouts: "For sure, depending from track to track, we'll have perhaps Red Bull with an advantage, or Ferrari, or McLaren and we'll have to be opportunistic. But the fight will be tight." 

Another great weekend for McLaren

McLaren were extremely quick this weekend too, proving that the Miami upgrades really helped the MCL38 become a better and more complete car. 

On Friday, the Woking-based team decided to make a choice in terms of set-up that was not perfect for Monte Carlo: a bit like Red Bull did (although in a less accentuated way), the team decided to stiffen the car to stabilize it, especially in the fast sections of the track. This gave an advantage especially in the race pace simulations, where Piastri was the fastest and managed the medium tyres very well. However, as explained previously, a rigid car does not absorb bumps from the asphalt well and above all, does not allow drivers to attack the kerbs aggressively. For this reason, between Friday and Saturday, the team decided to soften the car considerably, thus favouring all the low-speed sections of the Circuit.

The effects were immediately visible in qualifying, with Piastri and Norris who, although they didn't have exceptional traction like Ferrari’s (an aspect in which they are slightly behind), managed to be the fastest in all the very slow areas of the track. Their effective pace during the race can’t be properly analysed, as they all had to make the hard tyres last for 78 laps.

Despite this aspect, the trend is surprisingly good, as the MCL38 proved to suit perfectly three different circuits like Miami, Imola and Monaco. With this trend, together with Ferrari, they could easily become a thorn in Red Bull’s side and fight for the win every weekend, as underlined by Oscar Piastri after qualifying: “I think we came into this weekend pretty confident that we could be in the fight for pole and the win again. I think going into qualifying, maybe we weren't as convinced this week, but no, it felt good."

A lot will clearly depend on Red Bull’s ability to fix their current problems on some specific circuits, but it definitely seems like a new Championship has started after Miami, with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all in a tight battle for poles and wins at different circuits.