Ferrari remains committed to 2019 car concept

Ferrari is not planning on changing the concept of its 2019 car despite struggling to match Mercedes’ development so far this season.

The Ferrari front wing features various elements that are larger in the middle of the wing and smaller toward the endplates, in order to divert airflow outboard of the front wheels and make the car more efficient in a straight line. That’s in contrast to the Mercedes approach, which focuses more on controlling the air that goes towards the floor, sidepods and diffuser, but team principal Mattia Binotto says he still sees plenty of potential in the Ferrari concept.

“It’s not really the peak downforce that we are trying to chase,” Binotto said. “Yes, I think we do not need to change our front wing. Certainly it’s a different concept to Mercedes, but that doesn’t mean that we have achieved the maximum of its concept today. We are not foreseeing having to change the wing concept.

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“The Mercedes style was checked at the start of our project, so it’s a comparison we did at the start which was one way of development. Certainly, through the season you always try to double check what you did and if it’s still the right choice. But we do not foresee a change right now.”

Thursday’s two practice sessions at the Monaco Grand Prix showed Ferrari to still be struggling to match Mercedes, but Binotto says the target all season has been to show a performance improvement.

“Certainly let me say after winter testing our confidence in the performance was higher than today, no doubt. I think if you look as well at the classification today there are a lot of points to be recovered.

“But the goal is still the same. Looking race by race, trying to optimize it, trying to develop the car and show that we have potential in developing a car and understanding its technical base concept. As a team we need to show that we are still improving ourselves day by day and I think by doing so and looking race by race, I think the sum again will be done at the very end of the season.”