Ferrari Formula 1 team boss Mattia Binotto has blamed a lack of understanding of the Pirelli tyres this weekend as the cause of its woeful showing on Friday, which saw Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel only 15th and 17th quickest.
The duo were half a second slower than customer team Alfa Romeo, with only the Williams and Haas cars slower.
Speaking on Friday evening, Binotto admitted the team were struggling to get the tyres into the right temperature window at the start of the lap, which was then having a knock-on effect throughout the entire lap of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
“It didn’t look too pleasant from the outside, certainly not from the inside as well,” he commented on their practice performance.
“We struggle to make the tyres work. We are lacking grip, both in braking and acceleration which gave no overall performance to the car. So certainly the drivers are complaining about grip, overall grip,” he explained.
“I think it that’s not the potential of our car, and that’s certainly not the normal position for our car, if you compare where we are on the grid and the relative competitiveness to the others.”
Binotto added that the team will have its work cut out on Friday night to try and better understand where they’ve gone wrong with their set-up.
“There’s a lot to analyse, understand why we are not bringing the tyres to right window of temperature. I think it’s the same situation on both cars, so it’s not driver related. It’s really the way we set up the car in order to find the right window on the tyres.
“If you don’t find the right windows on the tyres, you are not making them work. Certainly if you don’t have grip, you are not fast in sector two, and then you are slow in all three sectors as a consequence.
“So yes, there is a lot to do, and try to address it for the rest of the weekend.”
