Sky Sports pundits, Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg, have raised questions about Ferrari’s 2019 car.
The Scuderia appeared to be the class of the field after testing but that form has not carried into the season with Mercedes claiming one-two finishes in the first three races.
What is clear, however, is that the SF90 carries a straight-line speed advantage over the Silver Arrow but Rosberg believes that could be due to a lack of drag.
“Mercedes are big, big favourites at the moment,” he said on his YouTube channel. “They’re just looking so strong.
“Ferrari’s just struggling. Ferrari has pitched their car in the wrong place aerodynamically. They have way too little drag and just way not enough downforce in the corners.
“That’s where they’re losing a lot of time. It’s not ideal for the fastest possible lap. So they’re just in the wrong place with their car.”
It is thought Ferrari tried to run a higher downforce configuration in Shanghai, but the German also believes that effort was flawed.
“Just putting on rear wing is not an efficient way because it’s just a 1:1 ‘increase downforce, increase drag’,” he explained.
“The way to go is to take it from other places in the car, like front wings, endplates, that’s what that really need to focus on now. But that’s a lot of work. It’s going to take time, it’s not great.”
Looking forward, many expect the straights of Baku to play into Ferrari’s hand but even then, Rosberg wonders if the corners offer Mercedes hope.
“Baku, I’m not really sure. There’s so many slow corners they’re going to lose out a lot and lots of straights where they’re going to gain,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to judge if that’s going to be a track where they’re going to be ahead. Let’s see. I’d put Mercedes ahead at the moment everywhere, even Barcelona.”
Brundle though has a different theory as he thinks the Italian team still has untapped potential in their engine but can’t use it for reliability fears.
“I don’t know if it’s heat management or reliability, but you suddenly see a top speed and think ‘wow, that’s incredible’ – but they don’t deliver it very often,” he added in his Sky Sports column.
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Vettel though is adamant the pace is there to be found, the main problem really is unlocking it.
“We have a very strong car, there’s nothing wrong with it but I think we’re not able to yet put it in the window, especially for myself, here and there,” he claimed.
“Obviously the three tracks we’ve been to now are quite different, the conditions we had are different.
“I think we start to see a sort of pattern and understand what – especially throughout a Grand Prix distance – understand what we need, what I need, to really unlock this car.
“I think these couple of weeks and the next weeks will be very important for us to understand where we need to go in the next months.”
