Ferrari team chief Mattia Binotto plans to use Formula One’s mini-break before the British Grand Prix next month to analyse and overhaul his team’s operations after a poor start to the delayed season.
The Italian said the season had got off to a “worse than expected” start and has ordered an intensive effort to find solutions.
Speaking after Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, where four-time champion Sebastian Vettel finished sixth and Charles Leclerc was 11th, Binotto said he had not been surprised after realising at pre-season testing that the SF1000 car was slower than hoped.
Leclerc has 18 points from three races, already significantly behind Lewis Hamilton’s leading 63-point haul, while Vettel has just nine.
“I think we saw in Barcelona that we were not fast enough, but I think we were not expecting such a difficult situation — it’s certainly worse compared to expectations.
“We’ve got a couple of weeks before Silverstone. It will be important for us back in Maranello to consider all the aspects of the car, in our organisation, whatever needs to be improved.
“We need a clear analysis of the overall performance of the car, of the team, and to really address it as soon as possible.
“We don’t need to work more, we need to work better.
“How to do that will be part of our analysis.”
He said that a raft of updates for the car ushered in for the Hungarian race had not made much real difference to performance.
“The deficit at the moment is still there,” he said. “We are lacking speed on the straights, we are lacking speed in cornering.
“Overall, the car has to be improved in all areas. It’s as simple as that.”
He added that there is no quick solution.
“It will take some time. It’s not something that can be addressed in a few weeks.
“Patience will be required. As I’ve said, we need to improve in all areas — we are lacking speed in all the areas. It’s not something that’s simple to address with a simple solution or package. How long? I do not have the answer yet.”
