Former Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has called for patience after the Italian team’s poor pace in Australia.
The weekend in Melbourne was a massive reality check for the Scuderia, as the promise of testing quickly evaporated and Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished almost a minute behind race winner Valtteri Bottas.
While a post-mortem is likely being carried out, the current boss at Lamborghini has warned the problems maybe circuit-specific.
“Yes, that was a difficult weekend for them,” he told Speed Week. “Ferrari could not show a normal level of performance, but let us not forget that Melbourne is a special place.
“That’s why, for me, Bahrain is the more reliable gauge for me.”
Possible explanations have varied from high tyre wear to a lack of low-speed performance, however, it is being strongly rumoured that the Ferrari engine was having to be protected because of an unspecified issue.
“In Australia, the car was too slow, and I don’t know if it was the tyres or the chassis or the engine,” Domenicali continued.
“If I look at the speed and the lap times, it is clear that something did not go normally there, but they should not overreact now.
“We will find out in Bahrain what the real situation is.”
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Expectations are that Ferrari will be back on the pace in the desert at a venue that has suited them more than Mercedes in recent years.
“I think we have all the tools, all the ingredients that we need,” Vettel claimed. “We have a good car, we know it. This weekend we didn’t, overall we’re not competitive enough, but we will be back.
“Right now, we don’t have an answer, but we need to get back, have a good look, and I’m sure we’ll find something because we know that the car is better than what we’ve seen, not just [in the race] but the whole weekend.”