Ferrari’s pre-season fears were realised on Saturday in Austria as they struggled to get anywhere near rivals Mercedes and Red Bull, with Sebastian Vettel suffering a shock Q2 exit.
Vettel’s best time of 1:04.041 was more than a second down on Valtteri Bottas’ pole time and failed to see him escape the Q2 drop-zone, whilst Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc only scraped through in tenth.
Leclerc would go on to find a little more pace in Q3, but only a tenth quicker than Vettel’s time, which put the Monegasque racer seventh on the grid, behind Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Racing Point.
Vettel admitted the performance of the SF1000 came as a surprise, given practice looked a little more promising.
“It’s a surprise,” said the four-time champion. “We thought that we had a little bit more in hand but it looks like the others were probably running a bit more fuel and more conservative in practice.
“I was not so happy with the car – quite a bit more oversteer on entry than I would like – but we’ll see. I think tomorrow is a different picture.”
Temperatures are slightly better on Sunday and Vettel believes Ferrari’s race pace is better than it’s single lap pace and is therefore confident of a better result.
“We’ll see, it’s a long race [and] I think in race trim we are always better. I think we will there to make up some ground and score some good points.”
Analysis shows Ferrari and its customers have all suffered major loss of performance compared to 2019, leading to suggestions its engine may have suffered a loss of power as a result of an FIA investigation.
