Out there is the land of Twitter is a meme that is going around featuring an empty yellow Ferrari shield with a black horse that is exiting stage left, clearly fed up with being associated with a team in such a mess.
The subtext of this, probably not noticed by whomever invented it is that it sums up the Ferrari situation perfectly. There are not enough horses.
The Ferrari power units have been useless since the rules about fuel flow meters were tightened up and the FIA and Ferrari ended an investigation with a secret deal. Whatever the deal was, Ferrari hasn't been the same since—and it is beginning to get embarrassing now.
But whatever the deal was, they agreed to it. Everyone knows you cannot have a secret deal without there being a deal. In secret.
A year ago at Spa Ferrari was utterly dominant, with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel qualifying 1-2. Leclerc won the race and Vettel finished fourth. This year the cars were slower than a year ago—and most of the others had improved. But this year it was worse than embarrassing. The only way things could have been worse would have been if the two drivers had collided while fighting for 12th place, and in fact they even had a brush but fortunately got away with it.
By the end of the race. Vettel and Leclerc were 13th and 14th (only 17 cars finished the race) and had even been overtaken by Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen, who was driving for a team that uses Ferrari customer engines. The only teams racing at the end that Ferrari was able to outrun were Haas and Williams—two teams that have combined to score 1 point this year.
Normally such a disaster would be greeted with resignations (or firings) at Maranello, but the team is still trying to remain calm and positive and not get swept away in the building tsunami of criticism.
And it is only going to get worse because the same will happen again next week at Monza, Italy, and likely at Mugello, Italy, in a fortnight as well when Ferrari will celebrate its 1000th Grand Prix with what is likely to be another crushing defeat.
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The problem is clearly the engine, but things are worse than that as Raikkonen uses the same engine and was able to beat both Ferraris to be the top Ferrari-engined car, in a dreadful 12th place.
“We finished in the same place in which we started,” said Sebastian Vettel. “We tried everything with both cars, but we were just too slow. I hope the situation on this circuit doesn’t repeat itself. I think this track maybe exposed our weaknesses a bit more than others. I believe we can do a bit better next week.”
There is nothing like optimism.
“The next race will be a difficult one for us,” said Leclerc, speaking of the Italian Grand Prix. “But hopefully from Mugello, it could get better. We have to stay united, react and work hard to come back to where we were before.”
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto summed it all up succinctly.
“On a track that requires aerodynamic efficiency and power, we were severely lacking in both,” he said. “Charles and Sebastian did their very best, but we couldn’t even get into the points. We are disappointed and angry, as indeed are our fans—and with good reason. It’s at times like this that we need to stand firm and look ahead in order to get over this difficult period. It’s the only way we will get out of this situation.”
Ferrari has now slumped to fifth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, just two points ahead of Renault, which is beginning to show signs of improvement and is on an upward path.
But no-one can touch Mercedes and, as a sub-clause of that, no-one can touch Lewis Hamilton—and that was no great surprise given his form in recent weeks. Valtteri Bottas continues to say that he will take the fight to Hamilton but it seems like that is not going to happen, as Hamilton extends his lead with each race. He now leads Max Verstappen by 47 points, close to two victories, while Bottas is three points behind the Dutchman. And everyone is scratching their heads and wondering how Hamilton can be beaten.
“I know it’s not necessarily what everyone always wants, to see the Mercedes at the front,” Hamilton said, “but no matter how much success we have, we just keep our heads down. When I go back into the office now there’s no guys celebrating, they’re like, ‘OK, how can we win the next race’. It’s an incredible mentality to work around, and environment to work around. We’re continuing to learn about ourselves, about the car, how we develop and improve weekend-in, weekend-out. And honestly, it’s crazy to think, I’m 35, going towards 36 but I feel better than ever, so that’s a positive.”
Bottas sounded resigned.
“Lewis was faultless today,” Bottas said. “And yesterday he was quick. At least it was a clean weekend for me, with no big issue. But, definitely I want those race wins and I’m just happy that there’s an opportunity next weekend again.”
Max Verstappen was less diplomatic about his third place.
“It was pretty boring, to be honest,” he said. “Not really interesting; not much to do. I couldn’t really keep up with them when they were pushing and from my side I ran out of tyres at the end. The last eight laps I was just backing it out, saving the front tires. It was not really enjoyable out there today. OK, it’s Spa and we all love driving here…but it was boring.”
The problem is that you cannot blame a team and a driver for being better than everyone else.
“I hope that people understand that this isn’t our fault,” Hamilton said. ”At the end of the day we’re drivers, we’ve come through all the ranks, we’ve earned the positions that we have and we come in weekend in, weekend out, devoted and give absolutely everything to go out there and perform at our best.
"Ultimately the decision makers who design the cars, who set rules and those kind of things, are the ones that you could apply pressure to to ultimately do a better job moving forwards, if that’s possible. I’m hopeful that’s what they’re going to do in 2022 and with that new type car, maybe we’ll see a different form of racing where you can follow. Wouldn’t that be something if we can follow closer and have more close races.”
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Newest Low for Ferrari: Vettel, Leclerc spend F1 Belgian GP with the backmarkers - Autoweek
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