All-New Ferrari SF-24 Formula 1 Car Breaks Cover, Will Tease Lewis Hamilton All Year

Ferrari ended last year third in the Constructors Standings, with 406 points, just 3 points shy of Mercedes. Meanwhile, Red Bull amassed a monster 860 points, so who had the best car was never in question. In terms of their drivers, Leclerc was slightly better than Sainz (206 points versus 200 points), but despite that small difference, the latter will still step aside for Lewis Hamilton come 2025.

Of course, Hamilton will race in the SF-25, so until then, he’ll have to make use of admiring this all-new SF-24 from a relative distance.

As for what we can admire, visually the SF-24 looks just like most of its predecessors, featuring yet another deep red livery. It does have a rather interesting nose design – a bit lifted, kind of like in the old days.

With regards to sidepods, inlets and the rest of the body work, it’s hard to say what’s final and what isn’t. The inlets are clearly different from the ones found on the SF-23, and don’t get me started on the floor because who the heck knows what’s going on over there. As for the rear wing, it looks a bit generic, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a final design.

Speaking of design, here's what the team’s technical boss, Enrico Cardile, had to say about the new car: “We have taken on board what the drivers told us and turned those ideas into engineering reality, with the aim of giving them a car that’s easier to drive and therefore easier to get the most out of and push to its limits. We did not set ourselves any design constraints other than that of delivering a strong and honest racing car, which can reproduce on the race track what we have seen in the wind tunnel.”

We'll just have to see how well all this translates into real world performance, once the 2024 F1 season kicks into gear, March 2, in Bahrain.

Leclerc himself also likes what he sees - he's particularly impressed with the visuals as he made a point to praise the white and yellow parts of the bodywork. He also fully expects the SF-24 to be less sensitive and easier to drive than its predecessor.

Speaking of which, the SF-23 ended last year as one of the quickest, if not the quickest car on the grid when it came to single-lap performance. Just something worth keeping in mind.

What happens now is that the all-new SF-24 will take to the track for the marketing and communications people to capture some footage. Then, it’ll join the rest of the field in Bahrain next week for pre-season testing.