Ferrari knew it would be bad at the Belgian Grand Prix but 15th and 17th even surprised them in practice on Friday.
The Italian team return to Spa as back-to-back winners in 2018 and 2019 but the engine which powered them to victory the past two years is now holding them back on the long straights of Francorchamps.
Just how much have they fallen? Well Sebastian Vettel’s best time in the second session was a massive 1.3s slower than it was at the same point of the weekend 12 months ago.
And worse, the four-time champion isn’t exactly shocked.
“I didn’t compare to last year but it’s probably not a surprise,” he was quoted by RaceFans when told of that stat. “It’s been like this in other events as well.”
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Analysing his day, Vettel added: “I think it was a difficult day for us, the car was difficult and tricky to drive.
“But I guess that also means that we’re not quite where we should be so we’re looking currently to find options with the set-up.
“We tried a lot this afternoon. We’ll reset and try again and try something different. I’m sure tomorrow will be a bit better.”
One element hanging over the rest of the weekend is rain, with some showers sweeping through the Ardennes on Friday afternoon.
“I think we has some glimpses of wet conditions this year already in Austria and Hungary in free practice,” Vettel noted. “It won’t be the easiest for us, but there’s always a chance to mix things up so we’ll see what we get.”
In the meantime, Ferrari has to deal with no even being the fastest Ferrari-powered team, as both Alfa Romeo’s finished ahead in FP2.
And though teammate Charles Leclerc had previously predicted a tough weekend in the build-up, he didn’t expect to be facing a possible Q1 exit based on their current positions.
“It’s probably a surprise to be so far back, especially in FP2,” the Monegasque conceded.
“We’ve tried quite a lot of things. At the beginning, I tried something quite aggressive in downforce levels, but it didn’t really work out. We came back on that.
“We are just lacking pace at the moment. We need to work hard to catch back [up], but I don’t expect miracles for this weekend.
“It doesn’t feel good, and it’s sad to see Ferrari so far down. As always, our work as drivers is to give our best, and that’s exactly what I’m trying and what Seb is trying to do in the car.”
Unlike Vettel though, Leclerc doesn’t see the possibility of rain as a potential saviour.
“We are struggling quite a lot with the balance this weekend,” he continued. “Normally in the rain, the balance only gets worse, and the issues you have in the dry are worse in the rain.
“I think it’s going to be difficult if we don’t find any solution to fix the balance problems we have today.”
