Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher has labelled Ferrari as the “biggest problem child” in F1 this season, with the German revealing that the Italians have no idea what is so wrong with the SF-23.
Ferrari endured another funny weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, where everything just seemed to fall apart.
The Maranello-based outfit looked good through free practice and appeared to be in with a shout of a potential podium.
However, it all went wrong for Ferrari in qualifying, on one particular side of the garage.
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Whilst Carlos Sainz secured an excellent front row start alongside Max Verstappen, last year’s Spanish GP pole sitter Charles Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 after claiming P19.
Fans watched on in complete disbelief at Leclerc’s woeful pace, as were the Ferrari engineers.
It was evident that something just wasn’t right with his car, something even Leclerc suggested.
Ferrari though, had no clue what the issue with Leclerc’s car was, resulting in them changing the entire rear of his car ahead of the race.
Leclerc started from the pits as a result; however, his pace was still nowhere near good enough to finish in top 10.
The 25-year-old finished P11 and was visibly downbeat after the race, with his car having still not seemed right at all.
Ferrari clearly have a huge problem to solve with their car, the only issue though, is that they “don’t really know” what the problem is.
“The biggest problem child is Ferrari. Team boss Fred Vasseur seemed at a loss,” Schumacher wrote in his column for Sky Deutschland.
“When I asked him how long it would take Ferrari to catch up with the leaders, his answer was: ‘First we have to identify the problem, then we can say how long it will take’.
“They don’t really know what the problem is, they’ve had the problem of the tyre degrading too quickly for a year and in Barcelona, apart from qualifying, they were simply too slow.”
So much is currently going on at Ferrari that it’s become difficult to keep up, with several changes taking place amongst the team.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur is currently in the process of building the team which he wants, something Schumacher notes will “take some time”.
As a result, the German believes Ferrari might soon “forget” about 2023 and perhaps even the start of 2024.
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“Ferrari still have a rocky road ahead of them,” Schumacher explained. “Vasseur has only been in charge for a few months, it just takes time and you have to give him that.
“He is in the process of bringing some new people into the team. It may take some time before they all start working and this work bears fruit.
“So it’s quite possible that Ferrari can forget about this season and the beginning of next year.”