Ferrari: Melbourne was a "cold shower" after 0.5s test lead
Ferrari thought it was half a second clear after the first week of Formula 1 pre-season testing and was confident of fighting Mercedes before a “cold shower” in Australia.

The debut of the SF90 at Barcelona left Ferrari and its drivers buoyant following the first week of testing in Spain, and though Mercedes ended the second week strongly it appeared as though Ferrari still had a performance advantage.
However, Mercedes went on to dominate the season-opening Australian Grand Prix – and win the first eight races, with five consecutive one-two finishes – while Ferrari failed to even score a podium in Melbourne.
Reflecting on Ferrari’s season, team principal Mattia Binotto told journalists including Motorsport.com at a media lunch that its optimism and expectations changed drastically after testing.
“We were certainly quick the first week,” said Binotto. “We were very strong.
“We thought we had a clear performance advantage on all the competitors to say the truth, that more or less in the first week we were half a second faster over other teams.
“On the second week [of testing], Mercedes brought upgrades. If we look at the overall best laptime of the second week, when everybody was trying lower fuel configurations and was starting pushing on the engine mode, we did exactly the same laptime of [Lewis] Hamilton.”
Binotto said Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc reported a lot of grip at the rear of the car and strong stability under braking on the newly-resurfaced Barcelona track.
Those areas became weaknesses for Ferrari, hurting its one-lap performance and tyre management and limiting Vettel’s confidence in particular, but did not become apparent immediately.
“I think we still had a great confidence of our performance [after testing],” Binotto said. “Going to Australia we had a good level of confidence that we could battle for the victory.
“But once there it was a cold shower for the entire team. We realised that our performance was not great enough.
“There were good reasons for not having a great performance, we made a bad choice in terms of cooling and on power unit management, there are few things that were wrong at the time. But overall we were certainly too slow compared to our expectation.”
Read Also:
When Leclerc qualified on pole and almost won the next race in Bahrain, Binotto was hopeful that Australia was just a “nightmare” race.
Yet over subsequent grands prix Ferrari realised how much work it needed to do.
“And since it took us too much time, this is the first weakness of our season,” Binotto said.
However, Binotto praised Ferrari for how it responded to those troubles.
“The team had the right spirit,” he said. “Even if we have not closed completely the gap, especially in cornering, I believe that in the second half of the season we addressed positively the problems we had.
“This shows that the team is capable of developing and moving in the right direction. That's the positive of the season.”

Previous article
Will Williams' 2019 soul-searching be enough?
Next article
Mercedes teams up with Tour de France-winning team INEOS

About this article
Series | Formula 1 |
Teams | Scuderia Ferrari |
Author | Scott Mitchell |
Ferrari: Melbourne was a "cold shower" after 0.5s test lead
Trending
Back to Work | Valtteri Bottas' 2021 Seat Fit
F1 Explained | Mercedes Power Unit
How McLaren F1’s new investors have already made an impact
The deal McLaren concluded with MSP Sports Capital last year which will help the cash-strapped Formula 1 team pay for much-needed infrastructure upgrades, also points toward the future for F1 itself, says GP Racing's Stuart Codling.
Why Verstappen isn't interested in the hype game
In a pre-season where Red Bull has been unusually quiet, Max Verstappen has also been guarded about the team's fortunes in 2021. Even after trying the RB16B for the first time at Silverstone, the Dutchman was careful to manage expectations
The pros and cons of F1's 2021 rule changes
In the strategy for grand prix racing's future, 2021 represents a significant step towards the goal of closer racing and a more level playing field. That's the theory behind the latest raft of changes, but will they have the desired effect?
What Red Bull is trying to hide with its RB16B launch
Red Bull made no secret of the fact its 2021 F1 car is an evolution of its predecessor, but in keeping the same foundations while hiding some tightly-guarded updates with its RB16B, the team aims to avoid suffering the same pitfalls of previous years
How Albon plans to fight his way out of Red Bull limbo
Alex Albon has faced the media for the first time since he lost his Red Bull drive at the end of 2020 and dropped out of a Formula 1 race seat altogether. He has a history of bouncing back from setbacks, so here's what he must do to rise again
Ranked! Carlin's greatest F1 graduates
Carlin has helped guide enough drivers to Formula 1 to fill out an entire grid, plus a handful of reserves, to create a remarkable alumni list. With Yuki Tsunoda set to join that group, Motorsport.com has ranked its graduates to grace the grand prix scene...
Why Alfa's 2021 launch says more about its 2022 plans
Alfa Romeo launched its C41 with a revised front nose, but there's little to suggest it will surge up the leaderboard in 2021. As the team frankly admits, it's putting its eggs in the basket labelled 2022 and hoping to hold the eighth place it earned last year
Why Gasly’s AlphaTauri haven is a blessing and a curse
Red Bull opted not to re-sign Pierre Gasly even before it decided to drop Alex Albon and so the Frenchman's Formula 1 journey will continue at AlphaTauri. This has positive and negative connotations for one of last season's star performers.