The 1000th GP weekend completed for Ferrari, but their on-track struggles for pace is not over yet.On a Landmark weekend Ferrari finished Sunday’s Tuscan GP in P8 and P10.Thanks to 5 seconds penalty to Kimi Raikkonen, other wise it would have been P9 & P10 in a race where just 12 drivers finished the race.
After the race,Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc along with team boss Mattia Binotto reflects on their struggles to stay in-front of others in the race.Binotto blames fundamental design issues of SF1000 for this year’s struggles and he feels there is no quick fix for the problem.But The Italian thinks team is pushing for more new parts before end of the season.
Ferrari’s struggle on their very own track tells the story of their fundamental design problem with SF1000.To make it memorable 1000th GP, Ferrari academy driver and Legendary Michael Schumacher’s son Mick Schumacher did five laps in the F2004, the Scuderia’s most successful car as raced by his father Michael.
Mick driving his father’s title winning Ferrari F2004, the sound of that old car is always music to F1 fans
Sebastian Vettel
“The start was not the best, but then I had a good run into Turn 1 staying on the inside, out of trouble. Then when I came round Turn 2, I saw that the McLaren had spun, but I couldn’t avoid making contact.
Luckily, with the Safety Car deployed we could change the wing and rejoin the field. I would have loved to capitalise a little bit more on other people’s mistakes, but at least we were quite lucky to generally stay out of trouble. The positive thing is that we were able to finish in the points, but of course we can’t be happy with our position.”
Charles Leclerc
“I had a great start, making my way to P3. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace we needed to keep this position and finished in 8th place. I tried to fight as much as I could, but it just wasn’t enough today.
Lots of things happened in the race, but one thing hasn’t changed, which is that we have to work hard to improve our performance.The race itself was quite fun. I was happy every time there was a standing start because it was an opportunity for us to try and fight for positions.
The car was quite difficult to drive, especially on the Hard tyres. Towards the end it became a bit better on the Softs, but overall, it’s very tough at the moment, so we need to keep our heads up and stay motivated. It’s very important to keep this in mind in times like these. Hopefully we will see better times coming soon.”
Mattia Binotto Team Principal
“A very disappointing result brings to an end an historic weekend for Scuderia Ferrari at our home track, Mugello, with our one thousandth Formula 1 Grand Prix.While yesterday, at least with Charles we managed to get a result in line with our expectations, today we didn’t have the pace to allow our drivers to fight with their nearest rivals, suffering especially with tyre degradation.
Both Charles and Sebastian did the best they could, given the performance level of the car. We are working hard to try and correct its basic faults, but it’s not something that can be done in a short space of time, nor with a few updates. That doesn’t mean we won’t be bringing new solutions between now and the end of the season, but we have to be realistic with ourselves and with our fans.”
