Paul Jeffrey
Premium
Following the conclusion of the first three Formula One pre-season test days at Barcelona, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has admitted the team are less than pleased about their start to the new Formula One campaign.
Having spent much of the running in Barcelona rooted towards the lower end of the quick times, the difference between this time last year is stark for the famous Italian squad. No headline grabbing times or performance runs to work the media up into a frenzy, and despite many thinking Ferrari are playing it cool for once, team chief Mattia Binotto has admitted he believes the Scuderia are a little behind their main rivals for the 2020 World Championship.
When taking into account the overall laptimes of the 2020 testing to date, Ferrari do seem to be in a difficult position - their quickest effort of the test so far only being good enough to place Sebastian Vettel a disappointing 14th overall, courtesy of his 1:18.154 set on Thursday. Things are even gloomier on the other side of the garage, with teammate Charles Leclerc languishing a distant 16th, ahead only of the struggling Haas drivers, half day tester Robert Kubica in the Alfa Romeo, Williams new boy Nicholas Latifi and the McLaren of Lando Norris.
However, despite the headline times not matching up to winter expectations, long run pace analysis suggests things aren't quite as bad for Ferrari as they may seem.
General consensus in the Formula One paddock is that the works team are running a significantly turned down power unit on the new SF1000, electing to spend more time understanding the new car rather than chasing ultimate laptime - a trap that the red team fell into last season with spectacular egg on face come the opening race at Melbourne.
Binotto admits that despite their concerns, Ferrari have made a conscious decision to go about their testing in a more structured approach this year, using the opening days to fully understand the package they have brought to the new season;
Added to this, when performing race simulations, reports from trackside suggest the Scuderia are producing very similar laptimes to Mercedes, with Red Bull just behind the top two teams.
So, compared to 2019 it's been a slow start for Ferrari, but with a further three days of testing ahead, and a potential 22-race season, all is certainly not lost yet...
Original Source: F1
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Having spent much of the running in Barcelona rooted towards the lower end of the quick times, the difference between this time last year is stark for the famous Italian squad. No headline grabbing times or performance runs to work the media up into a frenzy, and despite many thinking Ferrari are playing it cool for once, team chief Mattia Binotto has admitted he believes the Scuderia are a little behind their main rivals for the 2020 World Championship.
“I am not as optimistic as last year,” said Binotto after the first three days of testing completed. “Some of the others are faster than us at the moment, I believe. How much faster is really difficult to judge and I will go through all the data in the next few days but I don’t think we are as fast as them at the moment".
When taking into account the overall laptimes of the 2020 testing to date, Ferrari do seem to be in a difficult position - their quickest effort of the test so far only being good enough to place Sebastian Vettel a disappointing 14th overall, courtesy of his 1:18.154 set on Thursday. Things are even gloomier on the other side of the garage, with teammate Charles Leclerc languishing a distant 16th, ahead only of the struggling Haas drivers, half day tester Robert Kubica in the Alfa Romeo, Williams new boy Nicholas Latifi and the McLaren of Lando Norris.
However, despite the headline times not matching up to winter expectations, long run pace analysis suggests things aren't quite as bad for Ferrari as they may seem.
General consensus in the Formula One paddock is that the works team are running a significantly turned down power unit on the new SF1000, electing to spend more time understanding the new car rather than chasing ultimate laptime - a trap that the red team fell into last season with spectacular egg on face come the opening race at Melbourne.
Binotto admits that despite their concerns, Ferrari have made a conscious decision to go about their testing in a more structured approach this year, using the opening days to fully understand the package they have brought to the new season;
“At first we changed the approach to the testing and the programme so we focused the first session of these three days to try to map the car with various aero configurations without really trying to optimise the setup and look for overall performance,” he said.
Supporting the theory that Ferrari are yet to undertake performance runs is the fact that neither Vettel nor Leclerc are yet to sample the fastest tyre compound on offer from Pirelli, with both drivers having set their respective fastest times using C4 and C3 compound rubber respectively - compared to the C5 used by Mercedes to top the half way leaderboard.Added to this, when performing race simulations, reports from trackside suggest the Scuderia are producing very similar laptimes to Mercedes, with Red Bull just behind the top two teams.
So, compared to 2019 it's been a slow start for Ferrari, but with a further three days of testing ahead, and a potential 22-race season, all is certainly not lost yet...
Original Source: F1
Get yourself over to the Formula One Sub Forum here at RaceDepartment if you want to learn more about the world of Grand Prix racing with our awesome motorsport community.
