80 points behind the world title – Ferrari looking for shape: When the horse suddenly “jumps” – sport

With Max Verstappen in Red Bull in front of the Mercedes drivers, the Hungarian Grand Prix not only revealed the same podium the previous week at Le Castellet, but also the problems at Ferrari.

After a strong start to the season, the glorious Italian racing team is suddenly falling behind once again – and it has to make several claims:

• Internal arrangement: Charles Leclerc recently fell behind teammate Carlos Sainz twice. Before the races in the south of France and in Budapest, two Ferrari drivers won once. Needless to say, both drivers have ambitions to take on the leadership role on the team. The qualifiers at Le Castellet showed how successful the teamwork and the clear number one was. There Leclerc, second in the world championship standings, finished first in the downhill from Sainz. Verstappen and Sergio Perez demonstrate an effective selection command at Red Bull.
• Changing the strategy at the wrong time: Once again, Ferrari’s tire management has caused discussions. Already after qualifying in the Hungarian capital, Sainz complained about his race team’s insensitivity. And even at the Grand Prix itself, Poker was unsuccessful: Leclerc switched from medium tires to the harshest on the second stop – Russell immediately overtook Monegasque again on relatively cold ground.

• Unavoidable mistakes: Scuderia’s tactical blunders mixed with driving blunders, such as Leclerc at Ferrari’s home race in Imola or at Le Castellet, where the 24-year-old bet on victory as first officer. Sainz also had to take his nose after his role in Melbourne. But not only talented drivers are prone to making mistakes: there is also potential for improvement in stopping points – the Spaniard, for example, lost a lot of stopping time in Hungary.

Should Binotto fear for his job?

A mixture of bankruptcies, bad luck and malfunctions – this is from all the times of the year that Ferrari is in fact one of the fastest cars in the F1 circus. The unenviable person at the moment is Mattia Binotto. The Ferrari team boss has to watch how his subjects are already 80 points and more behind the Dutch championship leader after 13 races.

Caption:

alone on earth

Scuderia team boss Mattia Binotto.

Keystone/Zolt Chiglide

After all: now summer vacation is coming for Binotto and Co. The next GP will not be held until the end of August in Belgium. Enough time to remove the above blockages. Because if Binotto wants to stay in the saddle at Ferrari, he has to step up – a look at the logo gives hope.