The Ferrari tweaks that helped Leclerc turn the tables on McLaren

Charles Leclerc’s brilliant tyre management was critical to his Italian Grand Prix victory for Ferrari.

But on a day when rival McLaren was left ruing the missed opportunity it had to secure a 1-2 finish, differences in car performance also played a big part in what happened.

McLaren’s nervousness about being able to eke out a one-stop with its MCL38 was in contrast to a confidence Ferrari had in its upgraded SF-24 lasting the distance.

And, off the back of a run of events where Ferrari had been struggling with its floor, it looks to have rediscovered some belief in its package as a series of developments – both small and big – pulled things together.

Some of the changes made for Monza were track-specific, but others seem clearly a remedy for inefficiencies that its car had shown since it first hit trouble with its floor thanks to its Spanish GP upgrade.

While some tweaks may even seem inconsequential, it is important to understand that teams are now having to scrape the barrel when it comes to improvements – so every small gain matters.

In fact, some of the smaller-detail changes are actually more important, as they help optimise the package as a whole and unlock the latent performance that the aforementioned alterations didn’t fully exploit on their own.

A seemingly benign change was the position of the camera housings on the side of the nose. However, due to their size and location, they do have a substantial influence on the airflow passing by. This results in them being able to work in conjunction with the suspension fairings thereafter to improve flow downstream.

In this instance, Ferrari moved the camera housings further down the body of the nose, so they are less in line with the upper suspension elements (green arrow, old inset for comparison).

Another small tweak made to the SF-24 was the shape and length of the outboard mirror stalk.

This is now a very slender component which, rather than acting as a supportive surface to adjust the airflow over the upper surface of the sidepod, now has a much more minimal effect.

The sidepod itself has also been optimised, with changes made to the bodywork to increase the size of the undercut and adjust the height and depth of the beltline thereafter.

However, the biggest change made to the car has to be the floor, as the team has addressed a number of different aspects to create a…