Ferrari SF1000 ‘worse compared to expectations’ - Binotto

Ferrari F1 boss Mattia Binotto has warned there is no ‘simple trick’ that will address the team’s form after it endured another tough race weekend during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having shown glimmers of competitive speed in the inclement weather conditions of free practice and qualifying, Ferrari’s lack of raw pace was laid bare in a difficult race as both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc slipped back to finish sixth and 11th respectively.

A continuation of the issues that hampered the team in pre-season testing in February, Binotto – who went to lengths pre-season to play down the team’s 2020 hopes - admitted the performance of the Ferrari SF1000 is still turning out to be worse than it expected.

“I think we saw in Barcelona that we're not fast enough, but we're not expecting such a difficult situation,” he said. “So, it's certainly worse compared to expectations. Three races in a row, we've got a couple of weeks before Silverstone which will be important for us to see all the aspects of the car, team organisations, whatever needs to be improved.

Asked what it will take to bring the team up to speed, Binotto says there isn’t a simply solution to address the problems, adding it hasn’t yet ‘fully understood’ the reason as to why it is lacking in pace.

“It will take a long time [to improve],” he said. “I think patience will be required. As I said before, we need to improve all the areas, it's not something that a simple trick will address it, or a simple solution. It will take time. How long? I don't have the answer yet.

“We can only understand how much we can close the gap when we have fully understood the reason why we're so slow. It's too early at this stage to know. We're trying to understand the car and where we can progress soon.”