Ferrari fans rejoiced to the sight of Charles Leclerc finishing second in the Austrian Grand Prix, but the result is likely to be as good as it gets for the Scuderia which will be hard pressed to improve its depressed form according to team boss Mattia Binotto.
A spirited drive coupled with fortunate circumstances delivered a lucky runner-up spot to Leclerc in a race in which Ferrari had set itself in damage limitation mode.
Assessing the current state of development of the Italian outfit's SF1000, Binotto highlighted the car's aero weakness, but admitted that engine gains will be hard to come by given the current regulation freeze.
Ferrari will introduce an upgrade package in Hungary, but the Swiss engineer said the evolution is by no means a "silver bullet".
"We need to improve our car, there are some mis-correlations as you have seen with the design, the car behaviour, especially on the aero, that is the development we have started again back from the lockdown, and that hopefully we will have very soon at the race track," Binotto explained after Sunday's race.
"It will not be the final solution, there is no silver bullet, what’s important for us is to improve the type of behaviours.
"If I look at the qualifying, compared to the pole, we are missing a second, and of the second, three-tenths is cornering, but then there is still seven-tenths on the power unit, the straights, and I think that one will be very much difficult, because engine is frozen for the season.
"And the drag is not something we are addressing very soon, so a bit of disappointment yesterday to see our speed on the straight so let’s analyse our data and see what we can do in the future."
Sebastian Vettel's afternoon went downhill after the German collided with McLaren's Carlos Sainz in the early part of the race.
The four-time world champion managed to score a point nevertheless, but onboard footage (see hereunder) of Vettel revealed the extent of Ferrari's handling woes.
Binotto said the Scuderia will try to implement a few minor changes for next week's second race at the Red Bull Ring, but the SF1000's underlying issues augur for a challenging summer for the House of Maranello.
Giro 9 di 71. Media NUOVA (partenza fuori dai top 10). Ditemi voi se questo comportamento è normale – ho letto che alcuni sostengono che la macchina sia diventata inguidabile dopo il testacoda). E non è un caso isolato. Curva 4-6 è da F14 T vibes #AustrianGP #Onboard #Vettel pic.twitter.com/gJKnndlHOh
— Alex Brunetti (@deadlinex) July 5, 2020
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