Ferrari will change “95 per cent of components” with new 2024 F1 car
Ferrari are making substantial changes to their 2024 F1 challenger, but team boss Frederic Vasseur has refused to call it a “revolution”.
Ferrari became the first F1 team to announce the launch date - February 13 - of their all-new car for next year.
While Ferrari were the only team other than Red Bull to win a race in F1 2023, it was still a disappointing campaign for them.
They slipped to third in the constructors’ championship behind Mercedes after challenging Red Bull regularly for wins in 2022.
As they look to mount a serious title charge in 2024, Vasseur confirmed Ferrari are making drastic changes.
“I don’t know if revolution is the right word,” Vasseur said. “We have the same regulations now three years in a row that you can’t change massively. It’s a matter of tenths of a second.
“For sure, we have to do a step on that, we don’t underestimate the step. We are changing 95 per cent of the components, perhaps you can consider that it’s a revolution, I don’t know if it will be.
“The expectation is that we are focused on ourselves, we are doing a good step forward. But in the end, it’s always a matter of comparison, you can improve by 100 steps but if the others are improving by 120 you will look stupid.”
Despite Ferrari’s tricky start to the year, Vasseur was impressed that his outfit “stayed calm”.
“Everybody told me that ‘you will see at Ferrari that you start the season very well and then it’s going down’,” Vasseur added.
“And trust me, after Jeddah or Melbourne, I said ‘what the f***? If this was the good part of the season, we will be in big trouble’.
“The perception that you have from an external point of view of Ferrari is probably wrong. When I was outside, I was always thinking that the team would overreact to every single event.
“But the team was very, very calm after Melbourne. We were cautious of the situation and the weakness of the car.”