F1 experts give verdict on Ferrari’s Austrian GP qualifying disaster:
EDD STRAW
PRE-SEASON TESTING FEARS CONFIRMED
We knew Ferrari was struggling based on testing and we knew that there were no upgrades pending the change of aero concept in Hungary in two weeks, but even so it’s a shock to see on Ferrari falling in Q2 on merit and Charles Leclerc only just scraping through.
On this form, Ferrari is firmly in the midfield pack and not even at the front of it, which is something of a surprise.
Mercedes still reigns, but midfield’s had a major shake-up
This performance proves the decision to fix the problem and make a big change to the aero concept is the right one – provided, of course, Ferrari has corrected the problems that led to the car weakness in the first place. The two Red Bull Ring Races are going to be about damage limitation for Ferrari, even more so than we originally thought.
Exactly how badly this reflects on Ferrari depends on whether the upgrade in Hungary works well, with the caveat that it can be granted a few races to get on top of it.
But given the brief season, it now seems impossible, rather than merely unlikely, that it can be a title threat barring a miraculous step forward at the Hungaroring, the kind of step that doesn’t happen in F1 anymore.
SCOTT MITCHELL
‘EMBARRASSING AND HUMBLING’
It’s nothing short of an embarrassing and humbling qualifying performance from Ferrari.
Even if the team was braced for a harder weekend than last year, it can’t have expected this – scraping through to Q3 with one car, a second off the pace.
Ferrari’s got the biggest budget in F1 yet the SF1000, in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, was barely the fifth-fastest car.
The drivers didn’t hook their Q2 laps up: Vettel being almost 0.2s faster than Leclerc in S1, then roughly the same amount slower in S2. But a tricky car will not be helping the cause for two highly-accomplished drivers.
“Honestly, there’s not much more,” was Leclerc’s immediate verdict after lapping seventh-fastest in the final shootout. “The first corner wasn’t perfect but otherwise…”
To compound the issue, Ferrari’s customer teams Haas and Alfa Romeo are down scrapping with Williams.
True, they didn’t have leading-midfield chassis last season, but it’s not a good sign that on a power-sensitive track the three Ferrari-engined teams are on the ropes.
GARY ANDERSON
A MAJOR STEP BACKWARDS
In reality, Ferrari is exactly where we thought it might be.
In testing, Ferrari was actually 0.82% slower than Mercedes and my prediction put them at 0.91% slower. In qualifying here, they are 1.56% slower. Mercedes added a few new developments and Ferrari didn’t, so what do they expect?
When you consider that last season Ferrari was on pole here and over last season it averaged 0.33% off Mercedes, this is a major step backwards and now things need to change and quickly.
Leave a Reply