Explained: Why Ferrari’s high-speed bouncing problem isn’t easily solved

Ferrari’s SF-24 has been plagued with ongoing bouncing issues on medium and high-speed tracks — and it doesn’t sound like the issue will be solved any time soon.

Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, team boss Fred Vasseur and both Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc explained why the Ferrari has been so challenging to drive — and why this problem has been so tough to fix.

Fred Vasseur: Wind tunnels don’t emulate bouncing

Throughout the duration of 2024, the Ferrari SF-24 machines of both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc have been plagued by bouncing — and now, speaking to Auto Motor und Sport , team principal Fred Vasseur has explained why the problem has been so challenging to fix.

See, Ferrari brought a new upgrade package ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona — but even though the performance has improved, the bouncing hasn’t.

“The Barcelona upgrade is progress on paper. And to a large extent on the track,” said Vasseur.

“Unfortunately, the bouncing came back in some fast corners. But not in all of them.

“Because this cannot be reproduced in the wind tunnel, it is difficult to find out what causes it.”

Wind tunnel testing is one of the most critical ways a Formula 1 team can evaluate the quality of a race car’s upgrades. Unfortunately, wind tunnel testing isn’t foolproof. It can’t emulate all race conditions, and that has made it challenging for Ferrari to find solutions to this specific problem.

The bouncing alone is a massive issue — but it also snowballs into still other problems.

“The bouncing drives up the tire temperatures, and that costs time in other places,” Vasseur explained.

“That is why we compared two different underbody specifications in Silverstone.

“We now have until Budapest to find a solution.

“At the beginning, you will have to decide to create a state without bouncing and sacrifice a bit of lap time.

“But the aim must be to sort out the parts responsible for the bouncing with an upgrade.”

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Speaking to media before the Hungarian Grand Prix, both Ferrari drivers discussed the bouncing issues from their perspectives.

On Leclerc’s side, he’s felt he has needed to make some drastic changes to his setups in order to find the best plan of attack for the future.

“I think the turning point was from Barcelona onwards, where we obviously had an upgrade that induced quite a bit more bouncing,” Leclerc explained.

“And on my side, especially from that moment onwards, I’ve been quite extreme in changing the setup in order to try and find a way around those issues which you pay the price with the results; however you gain a lot of knowledge about those issues.

“I think it will help us bounce back from this weekend onward.

“I mean for us, it’s obviously very important to lose as little races as possible to understand those issues, but I think we now better understand those issues.

“And I’m confident it will be better from this race onward in order to maximize the points here and in Spa as well and hopefully for the rest of the season.”

It was a frustrating delay; as Leclerc noted, the team had a strong upward trend of improvement from Monza in 2023 until Monaco, where the hometown driver took victory.

Carlos Sainz Jr., meanwhile, expressed his confidence that both drivers utilizing different strategies at Silverstone has helped move the team forward in terms of development.

“I’m hopeful […] that we’re finding the right way,” he said.

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