Can Ferrari aim for third place?
With three races remaining in the 2020 Formula 1 championship, does Scuderia have the ability to finish well in a very complicated season?
The 2020 season for Scuderia started badly even before it began. Indeed, it turned out that the Italian team had cheated on its engine in 2019, making it much more powerful. A secret agreement with the FIA forced the Maranello team to change the philosophy of its engine, which was now much less efficient. Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel found themselves with a chassis with a lot of aerodynamic downforce that was not counterbalanced by good straight-line speed. Result: the SF1000 was seven-tenths slower than the Mercedes in a straight line.
From Austria, the first difficulties were felt with Sebastian Vettel eliminated in Q2 and Leclerc only 7th. Fortunately, a chaotic opening race allowed the Monegasque to finish second by taking advantage of every opportunity while his teammate painfully brought his car to a meager 10th position.
After the 6th race of the season in Spain, the two Scuderia drivers had only managed to finish in the points on seven occasions compared to eleven a year earlier. In 2020, Ferrari is simply no longer a top team but just a mid-field team, not as good as McLaren, Renault, and Racing Point. This was very evident in Belgium, a track requiring a lot of top speed, where the Ferraris battled the entire race with Haas and Alfa Romeo, without any hope of points and ultimately finishing in 13th and 14th positions.
If performance doesn’t seem to be up to par, the entire team makes mistakes. From a strategic standpoint, errors have already cost big points: in Hungary, Charles Leclerc missed out on points due to a hard tire stint that should have been avoided. Earlier, at Silverstone, Sebastian Vettel was convinced that with a different strategy, he would have finished in the points. Additionally, even the pit stops are not at the level of such a team, as seen in Imola where despite a very good first stint, a slow 13-second stop cost the German driver points, just like it happened at Spa-Francorchamps, which provoked the Monegasque’s fury on the radio.
Despite this very inconsistent start to the season with two podiums and numerous finishes outside the points, the situation seems to be improving at Ferrari in recent races. Indeed, Charles Leclerc has not left the points zone since Tuscany. However, on the other side of the garage, the performance is still lacking, and it’s likely that Vettel’s 3rd place in Turkey will be his best result this season.
Despite everything, Ferrari is now only 6 points behind Renault, 19 behind McLaren, and 24 behind Racing Point. If the Scuderia managed to catch up in these last Grand Prix, they would need both cars in the points to seriously consider competing with the teams ahead of them. But with Sebastian Vettel, struggling with his car and especially unceremoniously fired at the start of the season, it is uncertain whether the German would want to deprive his future team of finishing in a great position in the championship, as it would mean more money for Aston Martin next year.
Even if Ferrari does not manage to finish 3rd in the constructors’ championship, it is encouraging to see that it is no longer battling with AlphaTauri for 6th place. Especially since all the improvements made this year will be beneficial for 2021 as the cars will remain the same.
Caution, do not expect to see the red cars winning races regularly, but becoming the third force on the grid should be the objective at Maranello.
