Scuderia Ferrari Lost 2019 Championship While Designing the SF90

Published 12/06/2019, 9:36 AM EST

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Evidently, Scuderia Ferrari have adopted a defeatist attitude for the 2019 Formula One season. In fact, team principal Mattia Binotto confessed that the team “lost” the 2019 Formula 1 season last year itself.

Admittedly, Ferrari were the team to beat during pre-season testing, but the real season itself was a different story. It took until the Belgian Grand Prix and a massive post-summer break update for its first win.

In the end, Ferrari nabbed just three victories, and nine pole positions in 2019. They were comfortably trounced by Mercedes in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

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Speaking about when Ferrari gave up the ghost to Mercedes, team principal Binotto said: “I think we lost this last year when designing that car.”

“Because at the end, we’ve not been competitive at the start of the season. And there are reasons for it. So at the end I think it is the car project that was not good enough to start with.”

“Showing our development rate [over the season], generally speaking our design was not as good as our main competitor. So I think that’s it.”

via Imago

Aside from the three victories, Bahrain should have been under the team’s belt, but Charles Leclerc was robbed of victory with a late electronic fault. It wouldn’t be the first time some technical gremlins cost the team.

They had issues in qualifying in Austria and Germany, race-ending failures in Russia and Brazil and an engine problem in the United States. What also did not help their case was their stunning run of form facing intense scrutiny from rivals and allegations of rule-breaking.

“It has been an intense season,” admitted Binotto. “A lot to do. We restructured, reorganised the team.”

“But I think in the meantime, we always tried to address and improve the car and I think we did it through the season, at least to some level. But now the season is over, and we’re more looking at the next one.”

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“We know where we’ve got at least some weaknesses, where we are weak compared to them, and are putting all our effort trying to address it.”

“I don’t know what will be the situation at the start of next season. No one can know it right now.”

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“We know it’s a 22-race season next year. So what will be the picture at the start it still may be addressed later on.

“What’s important is that the team remains united, keeps being focused, working hard, working well, and has high motivation.”

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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