Ferrari Admit to Hiding 2019 Car Issues With Disputed Engine, Confirm Reason Behind Problems in 2020 Car

It’s a well-known fact that Ferrari F1’s struggles this calendar year have stemmed from having a lackluster car, designed for an engine that was much more powerful. However, once the FIA banned the previous year’s engine, the team suffered a ginormous loss of power and pace.

As a result, they have gone from being front-runners to a bang average mid-field team. But, apparently, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto admits that the team already knew that even their 2019 car was never good enough. Instead, they were hoping to mask the car’s weakness with the use of the powerful engine.

This problem has now boiled over to the 2020 car. But this time the overpowered engine isn’t there to save them.

Speaking about the dismal SF1000, Binotto said (translated by Google), “It was born to look for more downforce knowing that it has a superior engine. Then there were the technical directives and we found a machine with high resistance to progress and few horses.” 

Furthermore, Binotto said that any opportunity to amend the engine was thrown out of the window. Primarily due to the freezing of development after the onset of the pandemic. However, the Scuderia boss claims that it was already too late to react when the FIA passed their judgment.

Ferrari boss has his say on whether the next season will be a repeat of 2020

Binotto had earlier stressed that the team is already dedicating more of their focus on 2021 and 2022. While he does expect some improvement, being a title contender still seems a long way off.

The Ferrari team principal said, “The next single-seater will necessarily be an evolution of this one, due to the freezing of rules. But there are opportunities. The engine will be all new, it has been running on the bench for months, we count on it.”

Don’t expect the new engine to be a silver bullet though. It will, obviously, better their performances to some extent, but keep in mind that the car will be the same. Maybe, they could mount a stronger competition for the top 6 or 8 but not more than that.

Meanwhile, there is still plenty of racing to be done in 2020. Not that Ferrari might be the happiest to hear that. But all they can do at the moment is focus on the next race and hope that it isn’t a complete debacle.