Rob Smedley lauds ‘really encouraging’ Ferrari steps in area they were ‘dreadful’ at before

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Ferrari is arguably having one of its most competitive seasons to date in 2024 after three wins between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

Charles Leclerc took an unlikely victory in front of the Tifosi home crowd at the Italian Grand Prix, when Ferrari elected to switch him to a one-stop strategy late into the race.

Strategy was always a weak point at Ferrari in recent years, with a lot of their races characterised by blunders made on the pit wall that cost them victories.

The most high profile of these was throughout the 2022 season when Leclerc was in a title battle with Max Verstappen, and the team made crucial strategic errors at both the Monaco and Hungarian Grands Prix.

Ferrari threw away the win at Monaco that season owing to a mistake with their tyres choices, while they made a similar blunder in Hungary by fitting the wrong tyres to Leclerc and handed victory to Verstappen.

Former Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley believes the team has made a ‘really encouraging’ improvement in this area over the last couple of years, and gave insight into how he felt it was during his period at the team when speaking on the Formula for Success podcast.

Rob Smedley lauds ‘encouraging’ improvements to Ferrari’s strategy

Smedley worked with Ferrari for 10 years between 2004 and 2014 where he was race engineer to Felipe Massa and was known for his humorous exchanges over team radio.

When discussing the areas where Ferrari has improved, Smedley said it was ‘encouraging’ to see the team improve their trackside operations compared to when he was at the Italian outfit.

“I think what is really encouraging about Ferrari is that they operate much slicker now. If you go back a few years, and we can be really honest about this, they could be pretty dreadful at the track.

“They made a lot of mistakes, like rookie mistakes and team mistakes and just didn’t get it right enough to be a top team or as much as a top team should’ve been. Under Fred and the way they have restructured themselves, they are much much better.”

Ferrari close on Red Bull in Constructors’ Championship

Ferrari’s consistency in the races since the summer break and win at Monza has put them in a position to potentially leapfrog Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship.

The team is only 34 points away from Red Bull in third and with the pace of Sergio Perez dropping off versus the consistency of Carlos Sainz and Leclerc, Ferrari stands a chance of finishing second in the final six races.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

Red Bull has been left with problems in the last few races but is hopeful that a car upgrade in Austin will put them back on track for their title defence.

Although senior figures within the team have reportedly wrote off their chances of defending their Constructors’ Championship crown, owing to McLaren scoring significantly more points in the last seven races.