F1 | Ross Brawn on Ferrari's difficulties in Austin: "They had problems with the tyres"
"It's difficult to explain this fall, but I don't want to speculate on the latest FIA directive on fuel flow," said the Circus sporting director.
In the United States Grand Prix, held on the Austin track, Ferrari failed to place in the Top 3 after fourteen rounds: in fact, the last time, before Sunday, that the Ferrari had not achieved a podium was at Montmeló ( May 12).
In Texas the only SF90 to finish was that of Charles Leclerc, 52" behind Valtteri Bottas' winning Mercedes, while Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire due to the failure of the right rear suspension during the 9th lap.
The Ferrari's subpar performance in Austin fueled the suspicions of some teams, including Red Bull, regarding a possible irregularity of the Ferrari power unit in previous races.
The sporting director of Formula One took care of clarifying the matter Ross Brawn who preferred to avoid speculation on the Federation's technical directive on fuel flow, with the FIA however not finding anything illegal on the SF90s, underlining how Ferrari's lackluster performance can be attributed to the poor feeling with the tyres.
"After the summer break Ferrari seemed to have made a breakthrough, scoring six pole positions and three victories but in the end the Maranello team came back in a surprising way – Brawn admitted in his post-USA GP analysis. Not so much in qualifying where Vettel was only 0,012 seconds behind Bottas, but certainly in the race where Leclerc finished a full 52 seconds behind the Finn. The Ferrari driver struggled especially in the first stint with the medium Pirellis, taking a second from the leader. Once he switched to the hard tire Leclerc was more competitive, but by then his chances of fighting for a podium finish had passed".
Brawn then, completing his analysis of the Red, added: “From the outside it is difficult to explain this fall and I certainly don't want to speculate on the FIA's latest technical directive regarding fuel flow measurement. What is clear is that Ferrari has struggled with tire management. It wasn't so much about making them last, but rather about making them work properly".
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