Formula 1 fans on Reddit have been mocking Ferrari after their latest calamity at Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc had started on pole from Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen after a mistake by Carlos Sainz on his lap sent him to fourth have been on provisional pole after the opening run in Q3.
Leclerc lost the lead to Perez off the start, and was being dropped by the Mexican while constantly staring into his mirrors at the other Red Bull of Verstappen.
Sainz had begun to drop back, but was about to start pushing to close on the leaders having been saving his tyres, but he suffered a hydraulic failure on lap nine.
11 laps later, Leclerc was also out after an engine blowout in what was an extremely worrying day for Ferrari as Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu also suffered failures.
It was yet another day of what could have been for Ferrari as their woes continue, and a lot of fans are suggesting that their form of late harks back to Sebastian Vettel’s days at the team, when strategical errors, engine failures and an underperforming car made for more than a few stressful situations.
The four-time world champion’s hairstyles became a bit of a meme towards the end of his Scuderia career, but he has now grown a superb Barnet during his Aston Martin tenure.
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The pain of trying to win a championship with Ferrari, however, is now being experienced by Leclerc and Sainz.
“Leclerc and Sainz now understand why Seb had to get a hair transplant,” said a Reddit user.
“If something happens to their glorious hair, I will destroy Ferrari,” added another.
“Seb didn’t buckle under pressure when he was hit in Brazil 2012. That’s how much Ferrari got to him,” posited a third, referring to Vettel’s extraordinary recovery in the 2012 season finale when he was spun around on the first lap by Bruno Senna, but finished fifth to win the title from Fernando Alonso.
The race in Baku was the first time this season that a Ferrari-powered car has failed to score a single point as Valtteri Bottas finished 11th, with Mick Schumacher coming home 14th.
“Not a single Ferrari-powered car finished in the points this race, and 4 of 6 cars retired (1 with hydraulic issues). Reliability with the upgraded ICE seems to be an issue now,” said another fan.
Having started the season off so well with two wins in the opening three races, Leclerc cannot explain what has happened to Ferrari’s reliability.
“I don’t know, we’ve been fast and we didn’t have particularly big problems in the first part of the season,” he told Sky Sports.
“Now it seems that we have a bit more compared to the beginning of the season but we didn’t change massive things, if anything we made the thing better.
“So, it’s difficult to understand for now but we will have to analyse, obviously I don’t have the full picture of what happened today.
“Just personally, again it hurts.”
Sainz lamented the fact that, so far at least, 2022 has not been very kind to him.
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“Turn Three, lap nine or 10, I don’t remember, the hydraulics went and then that was it,” added the Spaniard.
“It’s a shame because I had taken a lot of care of my tyres in the first nine laps, opening a bit of a gap to get some fresh air in the tyres.
“I was about to start my race, start pushing and move towards the front, and as soon as this happened the hydraulics went.
“So big shame, it’s a bad day for the team but we need to make sure we stay together and we stay positive.
“Better days will come… so far the 2022 season is definitely not going my way.”
Verstappen went on to win the race ahead of Perez as Leclerc lost second in the Drivers’ Championship to the Mexican.
Red Bull are now 80 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship.