Ferrari is reportedly targeting the Dutch Grand Prix in May to improve the early issues they are facing with their 2020 car.
The Scuderia is set to start the new season off the pace of their rivals after showing a lack of pace in testing, which some still believe could simply be the result of sandbagging.
However, team boss Mattia Binotto is understood to have told the team at Maranello to expect a difficult race in Australia but hopes the start of the European leg of the year can provide the opportunity to catch up.
“If you look at the picture of the winter testing I think we have got relative to the others a better, but doesn’t mean the best, race pace compared to the qualifying pace,” Binotto said in Barcelona.
“I think we’re suffering a bit more on qualifying simulation compared to the race simulations, and that is something on which we need again to understand, analyse and eventually address it.”
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Those words will not exactly fill Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc with confidence, but the former does at least think Ferrari knows where the weakness lies.
“We worked very hard over winter and I think our car is a step forward,” he said.
“Currently it does come with some more drag, but I think we are aware.
“We are pushing as hard as we can to get rid of the drag and make it more efficient, but we also believe that come race day, it gives us an advantage the way it is set up now, so we will see.”
Questions over Ferrari’s top speed began after a large discrepancy was found between their figures on Barcelona’s main straight and those of their customer teams Alfa Romeo and Haas.
It is also believed the Scuderia might have lost some engine performance compared to last year after making changes likely linked to the investigation by the FIA, the result of which is casting its own shadow over Maranello as well.