After another failed qualifying on Saturday, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto knew the situation for the F1 giant was dire:
“We have to work out why (Ferrari was slow) and change this state of affairs, which is just not good enough for a team by the name of Ferrari. We mustn’t get het up about it, but we cannot ignore the facts.”
If only he knew what was about to follow on Sunday.
Having only qualified in P10 and P11 for the Styrian Grand Prix, the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel came together in ugly fashion just three turns into the race.
Charles lunged up the inside from deep and only succeeded in launching his car off the kerb and into the back of Vettel. Both drivers were forced to retire — three races after the pair also took each other out in Brazil last year.
Making matters worse was the fact Ferrari had hurriedly brought forward upgrades that weren’t meant to be rolled out until this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. In failing to complete three turns in full health, Ferrari missed the opportunity to collect crucial data needed to rapidly develop its 2020 challenger to compete with Mercedes.
According to RTL’s Felix Görner, Ferrari are missing 40-45hp with their current engine compared to the others. At the same time, the German free-to-air television channel defended Sebastian Vettel from recent criticism: “The wind is shifting. For example until now, the mistakes were always looked for in Vettel. That’s nonsense. A 4-time world champion doesn’t forget how to drive. You can see the truth now. The truth that the SF1000 is a faulty design. And the upgrades that don’t work. Vettel says the upgrades maybe gave them about 0.1s per lap and they had hoped for much more because the gap is much bigger. Rumors say the gap to Mercedes is around 1s per lap.” – Felix Görner explained.
After the race, Mattia Binotto went straight to Maranello…
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