Suzuka chicane struggles leaves Ferrari F1 team scratching its head

The Maranello outfit had hoped that the progress it had made with its SF-24 this year would allow it to pose a proper threat to Red Bull around the high-speed swoops of Suzuka.

Good progress has been made at the kind of corner speeds that are common around Suzuka, so the venue was going to be a good litmus test of how much of a step forward the team had taken.

While it duly managed to cut the deficit to Red Bull from 0.665 seconds last year to 0.485 seconds now, the gains still left a sense of dissatisfaction, especially because its long run form had looked every bit a match for the championship leaders throughout practice.

But perhaps key to it feeling that there was room to have done better was the fact that much of the deficit to Red Bull was not in the high-speed areas that had been a key focus. Instead, it was in the slow-speed turns where traditionally Ferrari has been so strong.

Analysis of the GPS traces comparing Max Verstappen’s pole position lap and Carlos Sainz’s effort showed that the majority of the gap between the cars was in the slow speed areas.

Sainz is one tenth behind coming out of Turn 2, and loses just one more tenth all the way up until the hairpin – where in one corner he drops back a further tenth.

From there until the chicane there is very little to choose between the two cars – as he even gains a little through Spoon Curve and the straight down to 130R, to leave him three tenths down.

But then in the chicane all his efforts fall away as he loses another tenth in that one section alone.

Comparisons of Ferrari’s best laps from this year and last show that the Ferrari is slower this year in the hairpin and chicane – suggesting that something has changed with its approach to slow speed corners.

While a tenth of a second here and there may not sound much, when the grid is as competitive as F1 is right now then it matters a lot – which is why Ferrari says it needs to understand what is happening.

Speaking to Sky, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur explained: “In all the sessions we struggled a lot in turn 17, the last of the chicane before the finish line.

“This was creating the gap to Max, and we have to talk about that. We talk about a tenth between ninth and fourth, and it’s a matter of details.

“But details are important, so we have to focus on that and understand why we lose so much time in the last…