Ferrari: Issues are worse than we expected

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto claims his team's start to the season has been worse than expected following their woes in testing.

There were enough signs from pre-season at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya to suggest that the current campaign would be difficult, but after the first triple-header of races, it is clear the Scuderia's worst fears have been realised.

Even after throwing a number of updates on the SF1000 after the season-opener in Austria, that were finally fully assessed in Hungary where Sebastian Vettel finished sixth and Charles Leclerc 11th, Binotto is continuing to paint a bleak picture.

"I think we saw in Barcelona that we were not fast enough, but I think we were not expecting such a difficult situation," assessed Binotto. "It's certainly worse compared to expectations.

"We've got a couple of weeks before Silverstone. It will be important for us back in Maranello to consider all the aspects of the car, in our organisation, whatever needs to be improved.

"We need a clear analysis of the overall performance of the car, of the team, and to really address it as soon as possible. We don't need to work more, we need to work better. How to do that will be part of our analysis."

After the opening race at the Red Bull Ring, Binotto stated that the second-per-lap gap in qualifying consisted of 0.3s in cornering and 0.7s on the straights.

Unfortunately for Ferrari, nothing has changed. Binotto added: "The deficit at the moment is still there.

"We are lacking speed on the straights, we are lacking speed in cornering. Overall, the car has to be improved in all areas. It's as simple as that."

Binotto has also warned there is no quick fix as he said: "It will take some time. It's not something that can be addressed in a few weeks.

"Patience will be required. As I've said, we need to improve in all the areas, we are lacking speed in all the areas. It's not something that's simple to address with a simple solution or package.

"It will take time. How long? I do not have the answer yet."

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