In order to restore the performance lost due to the upgrades introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari will give its SF-24 F1 car a new underbody for the upcoming Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort this weekend.

When Formula 1 returns after the summer break, teams will be looking to maximise their performance for the remaining ten races of the 24-race 2024 season. They will examine different combinations of upgrade packages and decide whether to use them this season or refine them for the 2025 car.

Ferrari, meanwhile, is faced with the task of repairing its car after a mid-season upgrade package backfired and led to a drop in performance. That setback saw the team drop out of its early challenge against Red Bull, while McLaren and Mercedes capitalised by upgrading their cars to compete at the front of the F1 grid.

The real purpose of Ferrari’s failed upgrade was to increase the SF-24’s downforce, but a side effect of this was the return of bounce, a problem that plagued several cars in 2022, the first season of the current ground effect era.

The impact problem meant that Ferrari pushed the limits of how the car could be set up for the following races, which added to the overall instability. By the time the Maranello-based team had found solutions to the problem in Hungary and Belgium, the summer break had already arrived, resulting in a loss of valuable points in the intermediate races – points that might have been secured without the mid-season upgrade package.

it.motorsport.com reports that the new floor at Zandvoort will completely solve the problem and release more power as the airflow to the diffuser and rear suspension has been changed. The upgrade will also address the lack of stability in the rear, which has been a common complaint.

In the constructors’ championship, Ferrari is in third place with 345 points, just 63 points behind Red Bull. With McLaren in second place with 366 points, the Maranello team will have to double its efforts to fight for the top spot before the end of the season.

This means that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz must seize every opportunity to boost Ferrari’s chances of winning the Constructors’ title. To do this, the team must ensure that the SF-24 is competitive from day one, which is this Friday.

In the drivers’ championship, however, the situation is different: leader Max Verstappen is in third place, 100 points ahead of Leclerc, while Lando Norris is in second place, 78 points behind Verstappen. Mercedes has also been a serious contender since the Canadian Grand Prix, with George Russell taking one victory and Lewis Hamilton winning two races at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.