Around a month before the start of the Formula 1 season, there is a faint hope in Maranello that Ferrari will take a step forward with its new car and that Red Bull will get closer. In any case, a Ferrari insider is optimistic.
“All we can report is what the simulator tells us and the impressions that the drivers have in the simulator,” said Marc Gene, long-time Ferrari ambassador and former test driver for the Reds, to the Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo.
But the team has to wait until the new car, which will bear the name SF-24, meets reality. “The track is the only yardstick and the final judge,” says Gene.
Ferrari will present its car for the 2024 season on February 13th, the first test drives will take place from February 21st to 23rd on the Bahrain GP circuit.
Red Bull had a big lead last year, Gene noted. “They say their car this year is even better, so of course they are the favorites. It’s difficult.”
Formula 1: Ferrari has been without a world title for ages
Saying Ferrari can fight with the Bulls for the world championship this year is currently “a little optimistic,” Gene said. “But taking a step forward, being able to fight with them more persistently – that yes.”
In the previous season, Ferrari only finished third in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull and Mercedes. After all, the team from Maranello was the only racing team apart from Red Bull that managed to win a Grand Prix (Carlos Sainz triumphed in Singapore).
Ferrari last won the manufacturers’ championship in 2008, and the last drivers’ title was even a year ago: in 2007, Kimi Räikkönen was crowned Formula 1 champion in a heart-stopping finale at Interlagos ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso (both McLaren). .