Ferrari came to the Chinese Grand Prix with raised expectations following a dominant performance in Bahrain and, despite being dubbed favourites by Mercedes, it was the reigning world champions who locked out the front row of the grid in Shanghai.
The China circuit is as reliant on good frontal downforce (which Mercedes appears to have more of) as outright power, but Sunday’s race might provide a different story entirely. Ferrari still look to have the advantage when it comes to the straights, and with the straight with the chequered flag on it, the DRS zones could prove helpful to Scuderia when the actual race gets underway on Sunday. However, Ferrari’s advantage from the straight line speed is compromised by the time lost in the slow corners.
Ferrari is hopeful that it can identify a solution to address the low-speed corner weaknesses of its SF90 car, as confirmed earlier today by Nico Rosberg, who this season is part of Sky’s commentating team: “I talked to the Ferrari guys and they said to me that they have positioned the car wrong regarding the aerodynamics. They are driving with less aero and they don’t have an adequate package to put on the car to have more downforce. They are working on that. Ferrari will bring a new rear wing soon. But the problem is that the whole car is positioned in that area so it’s not easy. Just changing the rear wing might make the car completely inefficient.” – Nico Rosberg explained.
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