Tag: Jock Clear

Ferrari expects similar step forward from Spanish GP upgrade

Ferrari’s new upgrade package that it has introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix is similar in expected performance gain to the step it introduced in Imola, according to senior performance engineer Jock Clear. A major upgrade for Imola put Ferrari in …

Ferrari’s new upgrade package that it has introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix is similar in expected performance gain to the step it introduced in Imola, according to senior performance engineer Jock Clear.

A major upgrade for Imola put Ferrari in the mix for pole position and the victory, while Charles Leclerc followed up with a win in Monaco the following week. At Barcelona the team has brought an increased sidepod and engine cover undercut, changes to the floor fences, floor body and floor edge, a reworked diffuser and tweaks to the halo, and Clear says the targeted performance improvement is along the same lines.

“I’d say it’s similar,” Clear said. “When we quantify an upgrade, we’re only talking performance — that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day. We could talk some interesting numbers that the aero department produce, but how much lap time it produces is always our measure.

“We’ve spoken in the past about how subtle some of the effects on air are, certainly at the back of the car. And this was in parallel with Imola, so this isn’t a reaction to Imola, if you see what I mean — this isn’t the upgrade from Imola and then we look at what it did. This was always a scheduled upgrade that’s in parallel.

“So the fact we’re bringing it here, as long as it performs as we expect — and in the recent past we’ve had very good correlation, so we have no reason to believe it won’t — again, that’s good confirmation we understand what’s going on on this car.

“We didn’t have to wait for the Imola package and say, ‘OK, what did that do? Now we go in this route,’ We knew what the Imola package would do, and it did what it should do. In parallel we were also looking at the next step beyond that, and that’s what you see here.”

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With the upgrade targeting similar areas as the one introduced in Imola as well, Clear says there was a concerted push to bring it to Spain for the first race of a European tripleheader of consecutive race weekends.

“It was somewhat fast-tracked. I’ve said before, Barcelona is a fantastic circuit to evaluate a car. So if you can, you’re always going to want to come to Barcelona with a package — that’s why we do pre-season [testing] here. And as a result of doing pre-season, we’ve got so much experience here that it levels all of the other variables for us and you get a good read on a package.

“So it’s always a good place to come. I think honestly, because the Imola package was a good step, I think maybe this was scheduled for later — this tripleheader offers you three good opportunities. Austria and Silverstone are also very good.

“But yeah, we did push it forward a bit, just because it’s super close at the moment and if you can come one race earlier, actually the gains are doubled, effectively. Because it’s always a race, isn’t it? It’s not just what our upgrades are doing, it’s what other people are doing. And if we can just get an upgrade one step earlier than the others, then you carry that forward a bit.”

How Monza strength boosted Ferrari confidence in its development plan

The strong performance from Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix provides a boost of confidence for the entire team that it understands how to develop its car for the future, according to the team’s senior performance engineer, Jock Clear. Carlos Sainz …

The strong performance from Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix provides a boost of confidence for the entire team that it understands how to develop its car for the future, according to the team’s senior performance engineer, Jock Clear.

Carlos Sainz took pole position with Charles Leclerc third in qualifying, and the pair finished third and fourth respectively in the race after making the Red Bulls work hard to overtake them. Clear says the fact Ferrari targeted Monza as a circuit it could be strong at, and then upgraded its car in a way that proved productive at that venue, bodes well for its plans moving forward.

“I think the most important thing about a weekend like (Monza) is to understand why you are better off,” Clear said. “Coming into this race we were confident that we understood enough about the car to know that we would be competitive here, and that’s the most encouraging thing for next year, for any year, when you understand what you are doing.

“When you get anomalies, and we’ve had a couple earlier on in the season where we didn’t understand — not specifically overall circuits, but there are some places where in some corners we just couldn’t work out why we were so slow in some corners — so you really have to scratch your head and say there’s something we are missing here.

“To come to Monza and have the car perform exactly how we expected it to, is a real fillip for all the design team and the aero department, because that is an affirmation that we know what we are doing — we understand what the car is doing and therefore what we are projecting for next year, we have every confidence is realistic.”

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With a focus on being more competitive in 2024, Clear says Ferrari is unlikely to bring any major updates to its car across the final eight races, although he wouldn’t rule out developments that could be brought forward.

“I think there will be little bits here and there. I don’t think there is going to be anything big,” Clear said. “We will have to see — that decision I don’t think is absolutely made because we are keen to make sure we go into next year with confidence and that means you want to finish the year strongly. If there are things that we think will carry over and be relevant, it would be sensible to get them on the car and get the confidence and some track time on those pieces before February next year.”