Ferrari to reportedly bin their 2023 car concept with ‘blank sheet’ for 2024

Michelle Foster 04 Aug 2023 12:45 PM

Ferrari will reportedly bin their 2023 car concept after Abu Dhabi with the Scuderia designing their 2024 model from scratch having started with a “blank sheet”.

But it is, claims the Italian edition of Motorsport.com, a page that has a faint outline of Red Bull’s sidepod solution.

Last season Formula 1 introduced a brand new set of technical regulations with the sport moving away from over-car airflow to using ground effect aerodynamics to create downforce. It was the restart Mercedes’ rivals wanted.

Project code 676 design started with a “blank page”

But instead of creating the close competition the FIA had set out as their target, Formula 1 has swapped Mercedes supremacy for Red Bull domination.

Although Ferrari secured four wins in the first season of the new era, Charles Leclerc taking the fight to Max Verstappen in the opening rounds, by the summer break the title fights were all but over while this season they haven’t factored at all.

Yet to win a grand prix as Red Bull have gone on a rampage with 12 wins on the trot, Ferrari have only managed three podiums and, fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, they trail the Milton Keynes squad by 213 points.

And this is despite swapping their baby bath sidepods for a more Red Bull-styled downwash concept, one that has been claimed is the key to success.

As such Ferrari have reportedly now made the call to start from scratch for 2024, the Scuderia designing next year’s car – project code 676 – off a “blank page” according toMotorsport.com.

The first car designed under the leadership of new team boss Fred Vasseur, the Ferrari 676 is a collaboration between Diego Tondi, the team’s aerodynamics chief, and Fabio Montecchi, the technician who took over the role of Head of Vehicle Concept from David Sanchez.

With 2024’s regulations unchanged from this season, Ferrari’s 2024 car will ‘abandon the concept of the belly pit sidepod that has characterised the ground effect single-seaters of the latest generation, to convert to ideas closer to those developed by Adrian Newey on the infamous RB19’.

Added to that ‘only a few bolts will be transferred from the SF-23 to 2024, because if Ferrari want to have the ambition to challenge Max Verstappen’s dominance with Red Bull, it must review not only the aerodynamic configuration but more generally the hardware of the car, from the chassis to the suspension’.

While Ferrari may be leaning more toward the Red Bull philosophy with next year’s car, the report says they will ‘will try to take some ideas to extremes that will have to go beyond the RB19 itself’.

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Formula 1 could see the first steps toward the 676 at this year’s United States Grand Prix as any lessons learned this year could help with 2024.

Team boss Vasseur was recently asked about Ferrari’s 2024 car and told the media including PlanetF1.com: “Yeah, we are starting to have a much better idea of the situation, and where we are weak, and where we are in better shape.

“But this I will keep to myself, sorry!

“But for sure, race after race we are starting to have a much better picture of the situation.”