F1 | Brawn on Ferrari performance in Melbourne: “Even they don't know what went wrong”

Speaking to the microphones of the official Formula 1 website, Ross Brawn commented on Ferrari's performance on the Albert Park track, underlining how the Ferrari, despite the good performances shown in the pre-season tests in Spain, was unable to finish in the best possible way the first weekend of this 2019 season.

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were never able to keep up with Mercedes, even struggling in direct comparison with Red Bull, with the latter capable of placing Max Verstappen on the podium.

A delicate and unexpected situation, especially from Mattia Binotto, but which according to the head of Liberty Media should not send the entire Red team into panic, given that there is still time and space to return to the performances seen on the Montmelò track.

“Ferrari arrived in Australia with the wind at its back, after doing very well in the eight days of winter testing,” said Chase Carey's right-hand man. “It seemed certain that they would fight for victory, but instead they didn't even manage to get on the podium. From the outside it's hard to tell what went wrong and, listening to pilots and engineers, it seems that even they still haven't been able to identify what happened. Neither Vettel nor Leclerc have ever been truly competitive."

On the gap with the other teams he added: “Apart from the delay compared to Mercedes, the difference with Haas was the most surprising thing. The US team uses the Ferrari power unit and has closed the gap considerably since the Barcelona tests. While it is true that Albert Park is unusual and does not reflect the true order of the grid, it should be noted that the points awarded on Sunday will be the same as in the coming weeks, so their result is still remarkable."

Conclusion on Mattia Binotto and his first race as team principal: “Mattia Binotto, who has taken on the role of Team Principal and Technical Director, is very experienced and knows that the first task will be to study the weekend's data and see what didn't work, without panicking. We are only in mid-March and the championship ends in December."