Ferrari can’t wait to leave Monza after both drivers suffered scary retirements during the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.
On another weekend where the weaknesses of their 2020 car have been on full display, the pain was arguably ended early as the Scuderia scored their first double DNF in 25 years at their home race.
It began with Sebastian Vettel, who started 17th, suffering a brake failure at the fastest part of the track on the main straight, this after the left-rear was seen on fire exiting Ascari on the previous lap.
“It is the worst thing but at least it happened in the best spot,” said the German, who smashed some polystyrene boards to smithereens in the process.
“If it happens elsewhere it’s not so nice. I completely lost the pressure on the pedal and went straight.
“In the laps before I ran into trouble but we managed the brakes but it was obviously quite bad.
“I was struggling, had a very bad start with the hard tyres and lost positions. Then we ran into the problems, had to cool the car, and the brakes failed, so a short race.”
Teammate Leclerc looked like offering Ferrari a glimmer of hope when he produced a brilliant double move on both Alfa Romeos to claim fourth into Turn 1 after the Safety Car restart.
But by the end of that lap, it all went horribly wrong as the Monegasque suffered a huge crash at the Parabolica.
“I just lost the car,” said Leclerc. “It’s my fault. It was a very difficult race to be honest, then I thought we were unlucky with the Safety Car but we were lucky.
“With the hard tyres I struggled massively, I tried to push but lost it in Parabolica and crashed.
“It was just a mistake by my side, it was very difficult to drive prior to the crash but no excuses, it was my mistake.”
Also Read:
- Ricciardo lucky to miss out on Ferrari? ‘I didn’t expect them to struggle as much’
- Vettel: Last Italian GP for Ferrari ‘a bit easier’ without the Tifosi
- Sainz would ‘always say yes’ to Ferrari as he reiterates trust in 2021 move
The result compounded a miserable week for Ferrari, who have gone back-to-back races without scoring a point for the first time since 2009
And after qualifying on Saturday, Charles was already looking ahead to next weekend and Ferrari 1000th F1 race.
“At the end, we expected it a little bit coming into this weekend,” he told Sky Sports.
“We know that Spa and here are probably the two worst tracks for us, with another one probably a bit later in the year. It’s like this, it’s tough because once you do a good lap and you do P13, it doesn’t feel good.
“For now it’s like this, and I need to extract the maximum out of the car in the situation we are in, and that’s what I try to do.
“Surely, it hurts even more once it’s at home but it’s a reality at the moment for us, unfortunately. We need to work, and hopefully for Mugello, which is still home for Ferrari, we’ll be a bit better.”
Vettel also admitted Ferrari may consider themselves lucky not to have the Tifosi witnessing their problems in person.
“It’s very difficult for us at the moment for sure, for the whole team,” he told Formula1.com after retiring.
“Mega frustrating, obviously. I don’t know what to say. You’re not even in the car, you don’t have a chance to do anything, so obviously a tough day.
“Obviously if I could choose then I don’t want to be here [conducting interviews] I want to be in the car on the track right now – and not in the back of the field but in the front, but sometimes you don’t get to choose.
“Tough times are part of life and part of sports but at the moment I think it’s not fair to all the guys that put so much effort in, that we are that bad,” he added.
“But on the other hand it’s a testimony of where we stand and it’s poor obviously where we are, especially here for our home race – I think it’s probably a blessing that there’s nobody in the stands.”