Ferrari have yet to win a race this season and betting on them doing so any time soon would be brave, no surprise as the team lags behind Mercedes an all fronts according to Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies.
Sadly for tifosi, Sebastian Vettel’s fortuitous second place in Monaco is the team’s best result in sixth tries so far this season as the SF90 is proving no match for the mighty Mercedes W10.
Former FIA man turned Ferrari sporting boss, Mekies told Auto Hebdo, “We have not progressed as much as we would have liked since the end of the winter tests.
“In terms of absolute performance, we are behind everywhere. We need to improve in the way we manage our aero along with the mechanical grip and our tyres.”
“The interaction between what the car does and what the tyres do is one of the main keys to performance. They are different from last year and there is potential for development. We’re still in an exploration phase.”
Despite Ferrari being shown up in the first six races of the season, Mekies sees the positives, “We were not good in Australia, very good in Bahrain, average in China, pretty good in Baku, struggling in Spain and Monaco… We are at 6/0 but we could be 4/2!’
“Ahead of us we have a very strong team (Mercedes) and we have to be perfect everywhere to hope to beat them,” he added.
Next up is Canada, a power circuit where Ferrari are expected to be more in their comfort zone than they were in Monaco.
Mekies acknowledged, “Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is more like Baku and Bahrain where we were better, but we must remain cautious because things are moving quickly as we have seen since the beginning of the season.”
Heading to Montreal for round seven of the F1 World Championship, Ferrari trail Mercedes in the constructors’ standings by a daunting 118 points.
Big Question: Is Canada the last stand for Ferrari in terms of the title race?