On Friday, Ferrari became the last major team to unveil the new 2019 car, taking the covers of the SF90 at Maranello.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the launch followed a pattern set by most teams this week with a car that lacked the details we can expect even next week at testing, but what was noticeable was just how little had changed compared to last year.
It was acknowledged by Ferrari during the event that work continues to be ready for Monday, however, team boss/technical director Mattia Binotto later confirmed the SF90 would be more of an “evolution” rather than a revolutionary design.
The argument will be made that the Scuderia was level with Mercedes towards the end of last year so why change a competitive formula? And that is true.
However, one story from the second half of 2018 was how Ferrari had, had to go back to move forward with their design, as an upgrade in Singapore didn’t produce the expected results.
In Austin, the team turned up with the car that had raced at Monza and immediately the performance returned. Then subsequent attempts to introduce a new floor also failed to deliver improvements.
Therefore, upon seeing that Ferrari has continued down the same path with the SF90, the concern is: have Ferrari solved what was stalling development in the second half of last season or not?
Every design path eventually has to come to an end, it was even suggested that Mercedes and Ferrari backed the rule changes for 2019 because they were struggling to find significant gains.
And perhaps it was the case that the Italian team’s performance was slipping because their car philosophy had already reached its optimum.
Also Read:
- Sebastian Vettel ‘excited’ by new Ferrari SF90
- Vettel claims emphasis is on Ferrari to perform in 2019 F1 title fight
Of course, this could just be an observation made a little prematurely and next week in Barcelona, Ferrari will reveal a whole new beast and then dominate the timesheets.
Let’s not forget also, Maranello has always prided itself on their mechanical abilities rather than aerodynamics and did have the best engine on the grid at times last year.
However, having already revealed very aggressive new cars, Mercedes and Red Bull will not be standing still so it is up to Ferrari to keep up the pace of development and that has been a problem in recent years.
