“We need 45 races to reach Ferrari”. – This was Max Verstappen’s outburst at the end of the Australian Grand Prix, which the Red Bull driver ended prematurely due to a problem with the fuel pump. It was his second retirement in three races, two DNFs which were also marked by a race win at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Charles Leclerc at that point was leading the Drivers ‘standings with 71 points against 25 for the reigning world champion and Ferrari was also in a solid position on top. In fact, Charles himself had collected more points that Red Bull and Mercedes at that stage of the championship.
Four races later the lead evaporated to the point that Max Verstappen is now even at the top of the Drivers’ classification. At Imola the slimmed Red Bull was the best car on the track and Charles Leclerc made a small error at the Variante Alta in the final part of race as he was trying to catch the Red Bull of Sergio Perez. The sixth place finish therefore ‘took away’ from the Monegasque seven points compared to the 15 he had in his pocket, even if the damage could have been greater after the spin, which could have also resulted in a DNF.
In Miami, Ferrari did not take full advantage of the front row and the lower degradation with the medium compound at the start of the race: this allowed Max Verstappen to pass Charles Leclerc and resist the Ferrari driver’s charge in the final part of the Miami Grand Prix, following a Safety Car that had actually given one more chance for the driver from Maranello. In Barcelona the k.o. of the power unit sent another 26 points up in smoke (the fast lap would probably have been a formality without Red Bull’s tactics to take it away from Charles Leclerc in the final laps of the race) and the negative trend was completed by Ferrari’s strategic mess in Monaco.
The result is the following: in the last four races Charles Leclerc has lost a total of 55 points, Ferrari even 85 against Red Bull. The total is 140 points lost, despite an F1-75 once again becoming the benchmark in terms of pace and performance. Charles Leclerc took five pole positions out of seven possible and ran at the top of the races 194 laps against Max Verstappen’s 142, yet the balance between the two is 4 wins to 2, (5 to 2 between Red Bull and Ferrari). With such a car-driver ‘package’, Ferrari’s balance sheet is definitely bellow expectations. even if there is still a lot of time to recover the lost ground and regain the lead in both rankings.
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Max Verstappen admitted he was lucky in his comeback against Charles Leclerc. Reducing the loss of 140 points in four races to a matter related to luck or bad luck, however, would not be intellectually honest.
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