Is A Quick Fix Possible To Fix SF90’s Weaknesses?

At times, it appears whether the very term Ferrari has emerged to have become everybody’s favourite punching bag?

In fact, for the better part of the 2017 season, most headlines following the team’s performances during the qualifying contests would read the following- “Are Ferrari sandbagging?”

Not that their troubles ended that season alone, it’s in 2018 where Vettel’s performance vis-a-vis his antithesis, Lewis Hamilton came to light in a fashion that most would’ve never imagined.

Isn’t that correct? Much of the Scuderia’s form as revealed during both qualifying and main race events for 2018 proved that despite having the fastest-possible machine on the grid, the team wasn’t really delivering.

Given that the Italian team was able to win 6 races, Sebastian Vettel winning only 5 in comparison to Lewis Hamilton winning 11, which is well, more than the double of the German’s tally did go on to prove that maybe there was something wrong in both the car as well as the driver.

Now as five races are completed with round six of the season nearly upon us, one wonders what’s gone wrong for Ferrari again? Why hasn’t the SF90 delivered them the results the team and its loving fans would’ve liked?

And therefore, for quite some time now, one has heard about the problems that Ferrari’s 2019 challenger- the SF90- is facing. Because if there aren’t any problems with the car’s 2019 concept then why haven’t the drivers- Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel- haven’t secured a single win thus far?

What’s further upsetting is the simple fact that it doesn’t seem as if Ferrari have sorted their driver problems in respect of the inter-team contest, since it isn’t really a rivalry as yet for the simple reason that Charles is only in his maiden season at the Scuderia.

That said, what’s the ideal fix, if at all, for the seemingly problematic SF-90 and how soon can it be fixed?

But before we dive into finding some answers, it’s worthwhile to mention that despite carrying some upgrades at Spain, part of most teams’ normal processes at around the Barcelona event each year, Binotto’s team weren’t able to stop their string of defeats at the hands of Mercedes.

This was both strange and indicative of the car’s concept problems because not only had the team introduced a new engine but had also introduced aerodynamic upgrades in the 2019 challenger.

To that end, a leading online journal shared some insights from Mattia Binotto as to how early and well can Vettel and Leclerc’s team offer some answers to what may eventually become a complex maze if it isn’t sufficiently addressed:

“The limitations that we got were present already in the first races of the season.

“I think the entire weekend certainly emphasized it, and [the weaknesses] were straightforward and obvious. How long it will take [to solve] is difficult to answer. I think more important for us is to understand how to address them. Then I am pretty sure we can do it quickly.”

Binotto said the upgrades introduced so far in 2019 have worked as expected, raising suggestions Ferrari could be suffering a mechanical limitation, or that the overall performance limit of its car is being reached and Mercedes has simply out-developed Ferrari since pre-season testing.”