Scuderia Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is “certain” the Australian Grand Prix did not reflect the true pace of their 2019 car. Both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished almost a minute off the lead as a combination of a poor first stint for the Monegasque and high tyre degradation left the Scuderia trailing.
It was a result that was far from expected after pre-season testing and Mattia Binotto admits plenty of investigation will now go into what happened: “Since Friday FP1 we have not found the right balance, we struggled at times,” he stated – “Do we understand that yet, probably not. It’s something we need to go back and analyse and try to assess what happened. One thing we are certain of is that this weekend is not the real potential of our car. The potential is certainly bigger.” – he explained.
On a more conventional strategy, the gap would have been less, with Leclerc losing around 10-12 seconds having to hold station behind Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps. But the German did accept that Ferrari has taken a step back since testing.
“In Barcelona, we were very happy with the car right from day one. I think the balance was right, the car was responding to what I was asking it to do. I had a lot of confidence,” he claimed – “I think all weekend I didn’t get that confidence I had in Barcelona. It (the car) wasn’t doing what I was asking. I think there were glimpses here and there that were really strong. The performance in some corners was really good, but in the majority it wasn’t and that’s why we were slower than other people and lost out today.”
The always ravenous Italian media were left dissatisfied as La Gazzetta dello Sport described Vettel as “weak”, but the 31-year-old remains positive: “It was one race,” he stated. “Mercedes is very strong and the rest are far behind, but it’s a long year.” – he concluded.
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