Ferrari insist that true performance was displayed in Barcelona

Ferrari have admitted that they are in trouble, saying that they were not hiding their pace during Formula 1 pre-season testing.

Team principal for the Ferrari team, Mattia Binotto, has revealed that Ferrari held nothing back in testing and that there is an element of concern as the Australia season opener on March 15.

“We are not hiding. That is our true performance," Binotto told Motorsport.com. “I think it's difficult to split on the straights what is drag and what is power, but certainly we are down on speed compared to other competitors.

"I think that's affected by one way from the drag and the other from the reliability programme that we have in place.”

“I think we need to still work on the balance of the car and the setup to optimize its overall performance around the racetrack."

While Ferrari may lack outright single lap pace, over the course of a race run, Binotto is confident that the team can make up the difference on Mercedes and Red Bull.

“If you look at the picture of the winter testing I think we have got relative to the others a better, but doesn't mean the best, race pace compared to the qualifying pace," continued Binotto.

“I think we're suffering a bit more on qualifying simulation compared to the race simulations, and that is something on which we need again to understand, analyse and eventually address it.”

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