What’s wrong with Ferrari?
The 2020 season for the Ferrari team is one of the most disastrous in its history – rare podiums, a serious gap from the leaders and only fifth place in the Constructors' Championship after six stages. Why did it happen and what prevents the legendary Scuderia from Maranello from regaining the status of a top team? — We will discuss these issues today on the “Max F1 +” channel.
To understand how deep is the crisis of the Scuderia, it is enough to compare the results with last year's Grand Prix. So, if we compare the results of the second practices of the Belgian Grand Prix in 2019 and 2020, we will see that if most teams added in relation to themselves from a second or more, then Ferrari became the only one who regressed compared to last season, and as much as 1.317 seconds!
The problems of the Maranello stable lie in many areas, but the most significant ones that need an immediate and radical transformation are:
1 engine
The most significant drawback of the current cars is the Ferrari power plant. If last year the Scuderia had the most powerful engine in the field, then this season it loses in all respects to Mercedes, Honda, and even Renault.
Many believe that the “Prancing Stallions” cheated with fuel consumption sensors, because of which they managed to win the first 3 stages after the summer break (Belgium, Italy, Singapore). Moreover, when rivals asked the FIA to launch an investigation against the Scuderia, instead of making the results public, the International Automobile Federation entered into a secret agreement with Ferrari, which raised suspicions of foul play by the Maranello stable even more.
One way or another, the “red team” did not succeed in the engine for the 2020 season.
2 Car concept
Despite some approval in terms of improved handling from Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, the concept of the car itself was unsuccessful. And here we should recall the words of the legendary Enzo Ferrari, who always put the power of the engine at the forefront:
“Aerodynamics was invented by people who don't know how to build engines.”
Perhaps the very concept of a car with increased downforce failed, because there are no real aerodynamic specialists in Italy, and in Ferrari, in recent years, they have strictly observed national identity. Given the Italian character, this does not do the “prancing stallions” anything good.
3 Team leadership
Many argue that a real assessment of the actions of the leader should be given several years after the start of work. However, almost immediately, the majority of Formula 1 fans unanimously declared that Mattia Binotto was not suitable to be the leader of a team, especially one like Ferrari. The Italian specialist has many shortcomings, but the biggest of them is that he is too soft a person. After all, to lead the Scuderia, you need to have a very tough character in order to subjugate everyone without exception. Especially considering the fact that Ferrari has almost always been dominated by political games of various kinds.
Conclusion
Ferrari needs a radical change, and immediately! And the point is not only in the composition of the pilots and the concept of the car, but also in the leadership of the team itself!