Stable rules➡️Convergence in design💡

The new Aston Martin AMR24 and Ferrari SF24 look much more similar than in the previous years 🔍

As sub-optimal design choices are discarded, engineers are left with fewer options❌

Will we see a tighter field this year?🤔

The new RB20 has… NO SIDEPODS INLETS?!?😜

Definitely a trolling act by their graphic designers…

What are we going to call this? The ‘no-pods’?🤔👀

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SF24 vs RB20🔎

Notable differences👇
🟢Push vs Pull-Rod
Carbon fibre's tensile strength is higher: look at how thin RedBull's rod is!➡️Lower mass and airflow disruption
🟣Different wishbone inclination
⚪️Underbite vs Overbite
🟠Different upper-plane load distribution
Not to mention each team's signature difference: smaller triangular vs larger circular airscope

The 🟠 McLaren MCL38 and 🔵Red Bull Racing RB20 share several traits💡

✅Downwashing sidepods
✅Early, deep undercut
✅Overbite (shorter on the McL)
✅Cannon shoulders
✅Round, large airscope

Main differences:
❌Sidepods inlets
❌Rear wing design

Can you spot a few more?😏

FRONT SUSPENSIONS COMPARISON

PULL-ROD:
🟠McL
🔵RB

PUSH-ROD:
🟢Aston
⚫️Mercedes
🔴Ferrari

No team changed architecture vs last year: they either thought they made the right choice OR that the costs and learning curve associated with a change weren't worth it.

Time will tell!

FRONT WINGS

💡Mercedes might have found a loophole!

By not structurally attaching the uppermost element to the nose, they might recreate the infamous 'Y250' vortex, which improves underbody efficiency👌

I can definitely see the other teams to get noisy about this🤬

Today is my birthday! 🥳🎉

And #F1 is about to hit the track again!
🏎️📈🛠️

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F1 2024 SIDEPODS INLETS💡

Teams are still opting for widely different designs after 2 years with stable regulations!

Merc, Aston and McL have way different shapes despite sharing the engine➡️There's probably no 'optimal' design

Do you think that I got RB's inlets right?🤔

RedBull’s ‘Shark Mouth’ Sidepods inlets!🦈

The inlet area looks minimal from the front due to the overbite (the part of bodywork that goes over it, partly covering from the front).

Never seen before💡

Not even one day into testing, and we already have the first photo of a 2024 floor!💡

Different angles, but the rear diffuser ramp seems quite similar to last year

[📸: Motorsport Images]
Bottom photo by @jiglesiash11

MINISECTORS - DAY 1

🔵VER: quickest in over 3/4 of the lap➡️1.1s gap over NOR! No clear weaknesses so far

🟠NOR: quickest braking into T4

🔴SAI had the best top speed into T14 (+1km/h vs VER, +4km/h vs NOR)

PUs turned way off: just 315km/h top speed (vs 323km/h in quali)

TOP SPEEDS - DAY 1
(On each car's fastest lap)

Top speeds are very low compared to last quali➡️Teams way down on power

⚪️Haas' top speed dropped the most (-18km/h)
🔵VCARB's (lol) the least (-6km/h), but RedBull is close, too (-8)... higher PU mode than most or improved drag?🤔

3 teams have already gone quicker than in 2023 quali!💡

LAPTIME CHANGE (s)
McL -0.40✅
Ferrari -0.08✅
VCARB -0.04✅
Merc +0.73
Sauber +0.78
RedBull +0.97
Alpine +1.08
Williams +1.12
Aston +1.69
Haas +5.80 (Tyre testing)

SAI was quickest (C4 tyres, softer than quali's C3)

Consider that the early-2023 McLaren had terrible performance, which explains part of the improvement. Same for the AlphaTauri

Ferrari instead was already a competitive car (on a single lap)

Ferrari has cooked: in the race simulation, Sainz was 0.59s/lap quicker (on average) than Verstappen in last year's race!😳

RACE PACE
SF24: 96.87s
RB19: 97.46s (+0.59s)
SF23: 98.33s (+1.46s ‼️)

And his top speed was still 9km/h down vs last race➡️Turned-down PU🔥

The team seem to have solved their tyre wear issues, probably to a higher degree than we expected

In the last stint (on Hards) the laptimes improved throughout the stint: the tyre wear didn't even offset the decreasing fuel load!

So far, Ferrari IMHO looks clearly 2nd quickest

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TOP SPEEDS - DAY 2
(During the fastest laps)

Red Bull 320km/h (-3 vs quali)
Williams 317
Alpine 315
Ferrari 315 (-10 vs quali‼️)
Aston 315
Merc 314
VCARB 312
McL 311
Haas 302⬅️Working on tyre deg

💡Ferrari on a lower PU mode
🚀RB20 might have even less drag than the RB19!

📊SF24 vs RB20 (and comparison with 2023 quali)

RB20's top speed and cornering speeds were higher; yet, SF24 produced an overall quicker lap

The SF24 is still far from the SF23's top speed and high-speed cornering performance➡️Time to be gained there!🛠

I think we can draw two conclusions:

1) Ferrari was still way down on power, at least on the main straight (-10km/h vs last year is massive, and cannot be explained by a slightly more loaded wing alone).

2) RedBull probably has further reduced their drag (to just lose 3km/h to ‘full beans qualifying PU mode’).

I'm preparing an extensive long-run analysis right now!🤩

Meanwhile, here is my (very early, so don't count on it!) pecking order prediction:
🥇Red Bull
🥈Ferrari
🥉McLaren
4️⃣5️⃣Aston/Mercedes
6️⃣7️⃣VCARB/Alpine
8️⃣9️⃣🔟Sauber, Williams, Haas

What's yours? What surprised you?🤔

The Race Simulations show that🔴Ferrari has a sizeable advantage over🟠McLaren! (+0.975s/lap on average)
On hards, the gap grew to 2s/lap!

⏱Improvement over last year's race:
Ferrari: -1.48s/lap➡️From 4th fastest to 1st
McL: -0.54s/lap➡️From 6th to 2nd

10kg fuel ~ 0.3s/lap