The last two weeks have been round in Maranello. One session chased the next, one analysis the other. "They were intense days," admits Sebastian Vettel. He does not yet want to give a total all-clear, but at least a partial one. "We found some answers to the question why we were so slow in Melbourne. We don't know if they are all. We could only find that out if we went back to Melbourne with our findings and compared ourselves to the race weekend there."
Vettel makes it clear what was missing at the season opener: "It wasn't the car I drove during the tests anymore. With it I could do what it wanted. It was fast everywhere. In Melbourne we lost everywhere, with the exception of the fast corners." Ferrari had to filter out two things in its position determination. Which problems were track specific and were caused by the set-up of the car? And which problems had to be attributed to the car in general? Vettel admitted: "We have our ideas about the set-up and configuration of the car. There are good reasons to believe that we could have been faster." ** Were there problems with the cooling?**
With the help of the opponents' GPS measurements, Ferrari's ailments can be divided into three areas. Much of the time was lost in the slow and medium curves. This may have something to do with the Ferrari's tendency to fall out of the top of the tire window. This costs mechanical grip. The top speed only became a handicap in the race. The competition found out that Ferrari intentionally turned the performance down dramatically. Around 30 to 40 HP. There were only two laps in which Vettel had full power at his disposal. The lap before and after the pit stop.
Ferrari had obviously miscalculated with the cooling. Mercedes is surprised: "We had set the car to too much cooling. The temperatures in the race were three to four degrees below the forecast." Ferrari is also said to have planned too much cooling, but with more serious consequences. If the Ferrari V6 turbo runs too cool, there will be problems with the build-up of boost pressure. And then the combustion can quickly lead to unwanted detonations. The only chance to prevent this is to reduce the power.
Since the Ferrari spent more time on the straight due to the reduced engine power, the fuel consumption also increased. In the second half of the race the Ferrari drivers had to get off the gas. This has nothing to do with the general power. The Mercedes engineers stated in the qualification: "We can hardly see any differences in the engine". Vettel also warns: "Don't draw too many conclusions from the bad top speeds in Australia". ** No handbrake applied**
Vettel explains the large gap to Mercedes as follows: "Mercedes was stronger than expected, we were less strong. That's how the big difference came about." From Ferrari's point of view, the result was a bitter disappointment, especially after the test drives had drawn a completely different picture. "We expected ourselves more from the weekend in Australia, but it didn't come out. I didn't deliberately drive with the handbrake on," admits Vettel. Team mate Charles Leclerc insists: "Our car is better than it looked in Melbourne.
