AUGUST 5, 2019
Ferrari's extremes
Ferrari had a fast car during the German Grand Prix, but one week later in Hungary Sebastian Vettel could only finish a distant third in his Ferrari. He was 60 seconds behind the winning Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
© RV Press
By Dan Knutson in Budapest
Ferrari had a fast car during the German Grand Prix, but one week later in Hungary Sebastian Vettel could only finish a distant third in his Ferrari. He was 60 seconds behind the winning Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.
Does Ferrari have an explanation for the lack of pace at the Hungaroring?
"I think what we should try to explain is not the minute today," Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said when he met with reporters after the race, "but how is it possible that maybe a week ago we have the fastest car, and today we are somehow not the fastest.
"Here, as we often say, is very track dependent. We know that our car is somehow lacking maximum downforce, and when you are somehow on a circuit like Budapest where maximum downforce is required, then we are certainly suffering.
"You are suffering even more in the race compared to the qually, because in the single lap of the qually eventually the grip of the tires is coping with the lack of downforce it may have, but over a long distance you are sliding, overheating the tires and things are certainly more complicated."
Given that the weakness of 2019 car is the lack of downforce, will Ferrari concentrate on creating more downforce right from the beginning on the 2020 car?
"We are lacking maximum downforce," Binotto said, "and obviously there are circuits where we are not running to the maximum downforce configurations, so in that case it will be different.
"Certainly we are seeking more downforce already on this current season. In the second half of the season we will try and put whatever max downforce we can put on the car and the car next year will require even more.
"We know that our competitors as well are developing their cars for next year on more downforce, so we cannot consider the gap of today as the single target. It has to be more than that."