Ferrari says it now has a "crystal clear" understanding of the deficiencies of its SF-23, the Italian outfit insisting it will design a "brand new" car for 2024.
Ferrari's ambitions of challenging Red Bull for the title this year were nipped in the bud in short order when it realized in the opening races of the season that its 2023 contender was no match for its rival's dominant RB19.
On occasion, the Scuderia's SF-23 has shined in qualifying, with Charles Leclerc claiming pole last April in Azerbaijan.
But overall Ferrari's car has been an inconsistent proposition for its drivers, a weakness rooted in the design's less efficient aerodynamics, with Carlos Sainz labeling the SF-23 a "a very peaky car".
The team's underperformance has left it just fourth in F1's Constructors standings behind Red Bull, Mercedes but also Aston Martin. But on the positive side, the team has a firm understanding of where it went wrong in terms of its car's concept.
"For us, it's crystal clear what we did wrong with the car and which are the weaknesses," Ferrari's Head of Chassis Enrico Cardile said in Friday's FIA press conference in Zandvoort.
"It's clear, it's not a matter of understanding what we should do. Now for the future, it's a matter of delivering a good product which will cope with the targets we have.
"So, we are not in 'nowhere-land'. What we have to do is a matter of doing, it's a matter of finding the right contents of the car, the right architecture for the car to achieve the target."
Ferrari's Head of Chassis Enrico Cardile.
Contrary to its normal course of development, Ferrari 2024 car – its third in F1's ground-effects era –
will not be an evolution of its current machine.
"It will be very different because developing this year's car we realised that some architectural choice we did was not right. It was constraining too much the development," added Cardile.
"Next year's car will not be an evolution of this year's car like this year's car has been compared to last year's car.
"It will be a brand new car, a different chassis with different design and a different rear end to allow to better develop the car to achieve the targets."
As part of its research and development work linked to its 2024 car, the Scuderia will continue to implement updates on its SF-23 during the back half of the year.
"It has been crucial for us to put a lot of effort into this year's car to better understand where the weaknesses were coming from and how to do a better job," the Italian explained.
"We kept developing the car in the wind tunnel since the summer break. We will bring some other updates in the next races, but now in the wind tunnel we are fully focused on next year's car.
"On this track we dedicated FP1 to specific tests to better tune our tools, to better operate the car and to have data to improve the behaviour of the car next year."
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
