Formula 1 motorsport director Ross Brawn has tipped Ferrari to rebound from their early season struggle.
All the hopes and expectations from testing quickly vanished with Mercedes dominating the first five races with a perfect record of 1-2 finishes giving them a 96-point lead in the Constructors’ standings.
To make matters worse, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has also capitalised twice to claim third place, including at the last race in Spain when the Scuderia again fell short.
“Mercedes’ updates appear to have been a significant step forward but it seems one can’t say the same of Ferrari,” Brawn, a former technical director at Maranello, said via Crash.net.
“Listening to the comments from the drivers and of team principal Mattia Binotto, the updates introduced in Barcelona produced the expected results, but not with the same impact as those of their arch-rivals.
“In such a competitive sport it’s not enough to simply progress, you have to do so at a pace that outguns rivals who are often already one step ahead and pushing on with further upgrades.
“I’m definitely not going to give Mattia any advice, he knows what he’s doing, as he’s already experienced this sort of situation during his long career in Formula 1.
“A new cycle has begun at Ferrari and it’s partly from difficult situations such as this one that one learns and improves because sometimes the cold shower of defeat produces a quicker response than the warm comfort zone of reasonable results.”
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The main problem for Ferrari has been the corners as their engine is widely considered to be the most powerful on the grid.
And while that would seemingly put them at a disadvantage this weekend in Monaco, Binotto isn’t ruling anything out.
“We will never give up. Our ultimate objective is to do better than in Barcelona,” he stated.
“Each circuit is different, Monaco will be a different circuit to Barcelona.
“Our car has got some strengths and certain weaknesses. It is certainly too early for such an assumption.”
