FERRARI’S LAST HOPES TO TURN THE TIDE OF BLUNDERS

“It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said after the Hungarian GP.

That was a race Ferrari should have dominated with the characteristics of its downforce-packed car, and Red Bull pair Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez starting way down the order. But the team contrived to capitulate once again, putting Charles Leclerc on the disastrous C2 hard tyres and watching Verstappen blast past, twice, in the race’s second half.

This followed Ferrari’s Monaco GP missteps in the rain – mainly on Leclerc’s strategy – and its Silverstone and Red Bull Ring team-orders messes. At Paul Ricard, Carlos Sainz, who has had the main share of Ferrari’s poor pitstops so far this year, ended up with a bizarre strategy, and was even called in while in full battle with Perez.

In the modern age, mid-season team personnel changes are unlikely and rather unwise. Ferrari is simply going to have to do better with what it has to stop costing itself points. This may also be a factor in the errors its drivers have made, such as Leclerc’s Imola off and Paul Ricard crash, plus Sainz going through a red light in the pits in France. It cannot be discounted that they are pushing too much to make up for their team’s deficiencies.

This includes poor reliability, which will mean further grid penalties if

Ferrari updates its engine as expected. But if this fixes its issues and provides a performance boost, then Leclerc and Sainz will at least make every contest interesting, even if Verstappen remains out of reach in the championship points.