Steering Ferrari is far from being a cakewalk. As Mattia Binotto goes in to this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, the team principal is navigating under intense pressure on a threatening precipice. Only two races into the new season, he faces perhaps the toughest challenge of his long career.
Over Binotto’s shoulder is the management at Maranello, notoriously unforgiving of underperformance. By Ferrari’s standards struggling in the midfield is underperforming on an epic scale. The Italian press, unafraid to turn the screw, is already touting the head of Ferrari’s GT racing, Antonello Coletta, as a potential replacement.
Indifferent form in testing had turned to floundering when racing began at the opening two grands prix in Austria. In recent years Ferrari’s challenge was to take the fight to Mercedes at the front. This year it is to merely catch the front runners.
Charles Leclerc’s second at the Austrian GP flattered the team and they knew it. Last week at the Styrian GP their real form was laid uncomfortably bare. Neither Leclerc nor Sebastian Vettel finished in the top eight in any of the four sessions before the race. They qualified in 11th and 10th respectively. That Leclerc then hit his teammate on the opening lap, taking them both out, was calamitous ignominy sealing a woeful weekend.
On Friday Binotto was in no doubt of the magnitude of the task they face but remained quietly determined. “Certainly the job is difficult,” he said. “When you are not doing well as we are not, you have a lot of pressure from the outside mainly but we are putting a lot of pressure on ourselves, because we know what our objectives are as Ferrari.
“I have been in F1 for 25 years and it is not the first time we have had difficult seasons at Ferrari. I was expecting difficult times, most important is when you are in these times to keep stability, to remain focused, and make sure as a team you are making the right decisions and moving forward.”
The 50-year-old knows the underlying issues with their car are impossible to ignore. Since the FIA clarified the fuel flow regulations in relation to Ferrari’s engine in a private agreement with the team last year, their straightline speed advantage has disappeared. Binotto accepted publicly in Hungary the clarification had cost them power. They have also pursued gaining downforce, where they were losing out to Mercedes.
The problem appears to be that they have gained the downforce, but lost power, having designed the car around expected output of the engine pre-FIA intervention. The worst case scenario ensued, a draggy car, tricky to handle that is also down on horses. They are fifth in the constructors’ championship, their worst start to a season since 2009. Tellingly Mercedes have referred to the perceived threat Red Bull present this weekend but with no mention of their scarlet nemesis.
Binotto has admitted that there may be a fundamental issue with the car’s design and getting on top of this is crucial. Because of the coronavirus outbreak the design of the cars has been frozen for next season to keep costs down. The SF1000 is the car they take into 2021; almost two years of racing are at stake.
To this end they fast-tracked aero upgrades to last week’s grand prix, parts that could not be given a run out in race conditions because the cars were both eliminated. This weekend in Hungary, a track where the twisting slow to medium corners place a premium on downforce not power, is a vital test of whether their chassis holds any advantages that point to a brighter future.
This season in competitive terms, Ferrari are already no longer being mentioned in the same breath as Mercedes and Red Bull, yet the attention on the Scuderia is stronger than ever. At the heart of this maelstrom is Binotto, a calm, thoughtful and refreshingly honest man but one who must now prove himself in one of racing’s toughest crucibles.
Early signs in Hungary are that the Scuderia are still struggling. Lewis Hamilton was quickest in first practice, leading a Mercedes one-two with his teammate Valtteri Bottas; Vettel and Leclerc were in sixth and seventh. The afternoon session hosted only limited running because of heavy rain.
F1 announced on Friday that of the 4,997 Covid-19 tests administered leading up to the Hungarian GP, two returned as positive, the first since the season resumed. They are not members of teams or in frontline roles and there is no expected impact on the racing this weekend.
