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Sport

Vasseur: 2024 Ferrari F1 car will be "95%" new

Ferrari dropped a place to third in the 2023 constructors’ standings but did enjoy a notably strong end to the campaign thanks to a run of four podium finishes from the final five rounds.

Drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc struggled with the SF-23's unpredictable handling and poor tyre degradation that led to wildly fluctuating form from race to race.

PLUS: How Ferrari responded to a reality check in 2023

The car’s strengths laid in braking, straightline speed and short-corner performance but Vasseur says that almost all parts will be revised for 2024 – ahead of a 13 February unveiling.

Speaking to the media in Maranello, the team boss said: "Revolution - I don't know if it is the right word because we have the same regulation now three years in a row that you can't change massively the situation.

"Again, it's a matter of tenths of seconds. It means it's all 0.1 or 0.2% performance that we are looking for. It's not five [percent].

"For sure, we have to do a step. I don't underestimate the step.

"We are changing 95% of the components of the car. Perhaps you can consider that it's a revolution."

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari (Photo by: Ferrari)

Sainz has said already that the 2024 car is behaving "differently" from his first simulator runs.

Vasseur also reckons that Ferrari needs to focus on its own improvements over the winter - believing the team to be making a “good step forward” - and then wait for pre-season testing in Bahrain to see how it stacks up to its rivals.

He continued: "Now the expectation is that we are focused on ourselves.

"We are doing good step forward. But at the end, it's always a matter of comparison.

"You can improve by 100 but if the others are improving by 120, you will look stupid. If they are improving by 80, you will look like a mega hero.

"So far, the most important is to continue to push, to continue to develop, to have the drivers into the middle of the project and they are fully involved in the development.

"I think that, so far, we are going in the right direction. I don't know if the others will go more or less. We will see in Bahrain."

Additional Reporting Franco Nugnes

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