F1 | Endless crisis: Ferrari is slow in corners, fighting against itself and losing the podium

A weekend that is an ordeal, with the aspirations of the day before immediately becoming the disappointments of the track, because "our updates worked, but less than those of our rivals" which is all very relative, because Ferrari - a sore point - is the team that has improved the least compared to the 2018 Spanish GP.

The fatalism with which the Red team principal, Mattia Binotto, accepts the harsh verdict of the Iberian race is almost anguishing. His is an analytical calmness, it gives the bitter feeling that this SF90 is a beautiful and failed project, wrong in several parts "maybe it's the very concept of the car that doesn't work" whispers an (almost) resigned Binotto, adding “The engine is fine, but we are very slow in corners, we suffer too much from understeer, the drivers are unable to make the car turn”. 

Well. And long live sincerity, except that we don't know whether the congenital problem of cornering concerns the aerodynamics or the suspensions, not to mention the difficulty of getting the Pirellis up to temperature. In short, the SF90 seems more like a black hole than a Rubik's cube from which it is impossible to escape.

But the saddest image of Barcelona in red remains the "fight" between Vettel and Leclerc for fourth place, with related team orders and position changes that are surreal and grotesque when compared to the general situation. But, with all possible goodness, what's the point of doing all this dancing and messing around for two backup positions? Why wrap yourself up like this for a simple placement?

With these two (great) drivers who were supposed to bring the world championship back to Maranello and who instead now spend entire GPs asking for a path from the wall towards their teammate, who coincidentally is increasingly slower. With the desire to assert a lead in the team which frankly we care very little about, because the problems lie elsewhere and the biggest lesson is provided by the world championship ranking, with both Cavallino drivers off the podium.

In short, while the Ferrari drivers were playing the derby for the wooden spoon, not only was Lewis Hamilton giving driving lessons even to the revived and combative Bottas 2019 version, but even the good Max Verstappen (ever more incisive and mature) put together the perfect race, managing from the start to overtake the dynamic duo in red and hold on to a third place which is worth gold, given that it is the only access to the podium in the championship of the five Mercedes doubles.

It becomes almost humiliating for Ferrari to manage these internal duels while their opponents travel half a second faster and win race after race. Above all, it's frustrating not even being able to compete for the podium with Red Bull. But then again the Red will be able to do very little as long as it is so slow and undrivable in the corners. The Maranello standard-bearers have to row against the wind with the steering wheel, fighting with understeer to throw a car into a corner that really doesn't want to hear about it. But what will happen? We'll come back stronger once we solve the problems, I hear. The same thing we've been hearing for eleven years now, more or less. C'est la vie...and then there are those who win.

Antonino Rendina

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