Ferrari pleads for ‘patience’ – warns turnaround could take years!

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto is urging “patience” from the Scuderia’s frustrated supporters, insisting a turnaround of the Italian outfit’s fortunes and a return to success could take years.

Ferrari’s situation has gone from bad to worse since the start of the season, its performance weighed down by the weakness of its SF1000 package, a state of affairs unlikely to improve given the restrictions on development in force this season.

In Spa, both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc failed to make the Q3 shootout, while Sunday’s proceedings delivered a mediocre P13 and P14 to the Scuderia.

Considering Ferrari’s dismal performance, Binotto has warned that pulling the team back up the grid is likely to be a long, drawn-out process.

©Ferrari

“How long it will take? I think that if you look back at all the winning cycles it is always many years,” he said. “There are no silver bullets in F1. Patience and stability is required.”

While Ferrari will hopefully improve next season, a significant step forward likely won’t happen until 2022, when F1 ushers in its ne regulations.

“The engine is frozen this season, so there is nothing we can do on that,” Binotto added. “We are developing it for next season, and it is progressing well on the dyno at the moment.

“On the car there are some restriction, so what’s the plan for us? The main plan is focusing on the next seasons – not only 2021 but also certainly as well 2022.

“In order to do well in the next season, we also need to try to understand the weaknesses of today and make sure that we are addressing them.”

The FIA’s clampdown on special engine modes in qualifying will come into effect at Monza. And Binotto is “curious” to observe the results of the new rule.

“It’s a circuit where power performance is important, certainly where we are not the best,” said the Swiss engineer.

“It may affect some of the teams. I will be curious to see how much, which team, I think it will be interesting in that respect.

“It’s a circuit which has high power sensitivity, especially as it changes a bit the balance of competitiveness in the quali itself, and we know how important it is to start ahead, as when you are in traffic it is always more difficult as well to make the car work.”