Damon Hill is expecting Ferrari to be “pasted” by the Italian media ahead of their home race this weekend, following a miserable Dutch Grand Prix.
Ferrari had an unsettled car throughout the event at Zandvoort, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz having complained of the SF-23’s handling being “inconsistent”.
Turn 1 was a nightmare for the Maranello-based team all weekend, with Ferrari having gone off there countless times.
Just making it into Q3 was a struggle for Charles Leclerc in particular, although he failed to really take part in the session after crashing.
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Leclerc went on to retire from the race on Sunday, following floor damage caused by an incident with Oscar Piastri.
It occurred after Leclerc had a snap from his car, which he had to quickly correct.
Ferrari’s Zandvoort woes couldn’t have come at a worse time, considering that it’s the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.
“I dare to think they’ve got Monza next week so they’re going to get pasted by the press in Italy,” Hill told Sky Sports.
“Their performance this weekend has been all over the place.
“The guys couldn’t stop the car going into the first corner, drivers complaining of inconsistent handling, Charles crashing, nothing really much happening in the race.
“That’s not good before your home grand prix.”
Whilst Leclerc retired, Sainz held on for fifth, a result which looks good on paper.
His pace wasn’t anything special though, with Sainz’s result mostly being due to capitalising on the mistakes of others.
Ex-Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins admitted to Sky Sports F1 that Ferrari will struggle to perform as badly as they did in Zandvoort at Monza, given how shocking their performance was.
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“I think it’s not a bad result from Carlos,” Collins said, “maybe capitalised on the mistakes from others. There are a lot of people discussing that they stopped too late at various points in the race.
“Leclerc sounded like he was having a really bad day, some damage to the floor, but even before that he just didn’t really seem to understand qualifying which was horrendous at times in the changeable conditions.
“Let’s hope that Monza is going to be stronger because it can’t be a lot worse than this weekend really.”