Despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton versus Max Verstappen takes centre stage in this year’s Formula 1 World Championship battle, Scuderia Ferrari’s much-hyped revival was dealt a massive reality check on Sunday.
Admittedly there were hints of a stronger Ferrari (than last year!) during the first two races of the season, but the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend offered the great Italian team nowhere to hide their inferiority which local media noted.
Ferrari specialist writer Leo Turrini wrote on his well-respected blog after the race in Portimao: “Unfortunately an undeniable step backwards for Ferrari. Modest pace, beating McLaren postponed.
“An uncomfortable feeling of a performance deficit that is not easy to overcome. In Portugal, we saw a dominant Mercedes, with Red Bull on the ropes. And Ferrari did worse than Portimao 2020.”
That’s the reality check.
With their woeful SF1000, last year Charles Leclerc managed fourth place while Sebastian Vettel brought in a solitary point for tenth. This year the pickings were far more meagre with a supposedly better package.
In 2020, Charles Leclerc took fourth place 65 seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton. Fast forward and the deficit to the same winner in 2021 was 55 seconds. Give or take, here or there, the numbers suggest the Reds are pretty much where they were last year.
While sobering, the result comes as no real surprise as it is hard to believe anything that comes out of Maranello these days, or in other words, it’s hard to believe they actually do what they do under Mattia Binotto’s watch; from Mick Schumacher’s misplacement at Haas to the direction the team has taken over the past few years.
Ferrari have trumpeted their ‘revival’ by hailing steps taken since testing through the first two races, their drivers even buying into the hype, with Leclerc more than once declaring the SF21 is far better than its troublesome predecessor. Not on Sunday in the Algarve hills it wasn’t.
Furthermore, for a team of Ferrari’s stature – the most successful and widely supported team in the sport – there is no time for restructuring and rebuilding anymore. Those days are over, after all Binotto has been at the helm for well over two years now
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