For years, Ferrari have endured the mocking for its inefficient and slow pitstops. However, under Frederic Vasseur’s leadership, the Italian team seems to have improved on this aspect. At the 2024 Miami GP, Ferrari delivered the fastest pitstop of 1.94 seconds. While this only edged out the second-fastest stop by Red Bull by 0.01 seconds, F1 expert Marc Priestley believes this minuscule improvement should not go unnoticed.
In a LinkedIn post, Priestley posted the DHL Top 10 Fastest Pitstop graphic and praised Ferrari’s progress. He stated, “Ferrari at the top of the pitstop times is just another small indicator of their resurgence… Lots of small things are changing at Ferrari under new leadership and it’s beginning to generate results.”
The former McLaren pit crew member also mentioned how these “small things” have a “snowball effect” to build confidence and a winning culture in the team. Priestley mentioned how pitstops in F1 are a “measurable way of noticing progress” for any team and an achievement Ferrari should be proud of.
Ever since Frederic Vasseur has taken charge of the Maranello team, several operational and structural aspects have changed. In the year and a half under the Frenchman’s leadership, the team’s pit stop efficiency and tire strategy errors have reduced considerably.
In the 2023 pre-season, the Italian team was practicing pitstops a lot, wanting to complete 1,000 pitstops before the opening race. The results of those efforts are finally showing up consistently with a sub-two-second stop in Miami.
Vasseur has been taking a hands-on approach with his leadership as the Ferrari boss. The communication in the team has improved by leaps and bounds, especially on the technical development side. This has helped Ferrari to bring effective upgrades that yield good performance step-ups.
Ferrari are on the ascendancy in 2024
Coming into 2024, Ferrari have massively closed the gap to Red Bull. Their 95% overhaul of the SF-24 has worked wonders for them, as they have persistently been the second-best team behind Red Bull.
This became clear in Australia, where the Maranello outfit took their first win of the season. While Max Verstappen’s brake issues and subsequent DNF helped their cause, the SF-24’s pace was quite excellent. Carlos Sainz had overtaken the Dutchman on the second lap of the Grand Prix itself, and cruised to victory.
However, the Chinese and Miami GPs have been a bit underwhelming for Ferrari, given how McLaren have outperformed them in both races. Thus, their big upgrade package in Imola would be a crucial one.
The Italian team would be raring to get their advantage back from the initial races of the season. Given the way their upgrade packages have worked well since the mid-season of 2023, one would expect Ferrari to come back stronger in Imola.
The Prancing Horse would like to do so and also cut back some of Red Bull’s advantage. If so, things could get really interesting in the fight for the win with McLaren having won in Miami as well.
