Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has warned that his team’s “overall performance needs to be improved” as it prepares for the 2020 Formula 1 season.
The Italian squad didn’t show the outright pace of rivals like Mercedes during pre-season testing.
However, the team says developments brought to the car during the six days of running have provided the gains expected, though Binotto admits there’s no silver bullet in terms of improving the car’s overall performance.
“The overall performance needs to be improved,” Binotto said.
“I don’t think there is a single area where we need to focus but all the areas.
“The rear wing introduced in the second week is a wing with a bit less downforce and less drag, the one we brought on the first week had maximum downforce.
“The parts we got on the car are at least working as expected.
“We are where we thought we’d be,” he continued.
“We knew we had put a lot of drag on, we knew the power unit performance, so that is the speed we were expecting.
“The others are a lot faster on the straights, that is the situation.”
Binotto added that efforts would be focused on continuing to develop the 2020 ‘F1000’, but was conscious of the need to switch focus to next year’s car.
The 2021 regulations present a step change, with little carryover amid technical regulations which will introduce design concepts such as ground effect.
Ferrari is aware that it will need to move its focus across at some point, but maintains it will concentrate for now on the current car rather than abandoning development in an effort to get a head start next season.
“We are very early in the season, and you cannot compromise the entire season itself,” said Binotto.
“So at the start we certainly keep pushing on 2020 as much as we can, because it’s time for us to understand the car and the weaknesses.
“Hopefully, it is things that we can address as soon as possible.
“If I see after a few races, and we will still understand that the gap is too big, then maybe it’s a considerations that we can take into account,” he added. “But it’s early stage right now. I think it’s just few days of testing.
“I think there are things that we can address on the car, hopefully quite soon. So at the moment, we should keep our plan as it was for 2020/2021.”
The Formula 1 season is set to kick off in Melbourne with the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix on March 12-15.
