'Last small upgrades' for Ferrari's US deployment

Ferrari has said that next month's United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin will bring the last development of note on the current SF-24 offering.

The team said it was making on planning a few final "small upgrades" to the car, but that development work had now been switched to next year's car even though they remain in outside contention for this year's title.

Although the season is currently on pause between Singapore and the United States, it's not a formal summer shutdown which means that work continues on apace back the team factories.

Ferrari says up to now it has been spending time delivering more new components to the 2024 car, which has already claimed three race victories this season in the hands of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

But the team is going to be turning its attention to the development and fine-tuning of its car for next year's campaign and making sure they hit the ground running in March in Australia.

• Read also: Ferrari says SF-24 bouncing woes rooted in correlation ‘anomaly’

“We all know that we already started the development of next year’s car,” Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur told media last week in Singapore, including Motorsport Week.

“We try to do our best to have small upgrades on the next one," he commented. "I think it will be the probably last one for everybody. That will be true for us, but it will be true for the other teams.”

Vasseur acknowledged that the teams are now so close this year compared with last year's blow-out performance from Red Bull that the final fix races of the season could be exceptionally across throughout.

"It’s so tight," the Ferrari boss agreed. "Overall the last four or five [or] six races, if you have a look on the grid it may get tight and every single bit can make a difference."

Ferrari's decision to move on after Austin may be in part to a disappointing weekend in Singapore which has allowed Red Bull and McLaren to move away from them in the standings with too little time remaining to claw back lost ground.

“The result of the weekend is not the one expected,” Vasseur acknowledged after Leclerc finished in fifth and Sainz crossed the line in seventh, in a race won by Lando Norris and Max Verstappen claiming an important P2.

“But the result of the Sunday is a good one, it’s a good race," Vasseur continued. “We had a strong pace, a good start for Charles.

“Carlos was a little bit on the dirty side [of the grid] and a bit blocked, but then a good strategy, a good pitstop with tyre management in the line of the last couple of events.

“I think we can be pleased with this now," he added. "We have a couple of weeks to prepare the last six and to be ready for Austin.”

With six races to do, Ferrari is currently in third place in the 2024 constructors championship. McLaren now leads Red Bull by 516 points to 475 compared to 441 points for Ferrari.

In the drivers standings it's Max Verstappen who leads Lando Norris by 52 points, making it a knife edge battle to the end of the season. Leclerc is third, a further 34 points behind Norris.

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