Ferrari will be looking for answers in Formula One testing this week after champions Mercedes were more dominant than ever in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The race at the Circuit de Catalunya marked the start of the European season and Ferrari had hoped updates to their car might put them closer.
Instead, Mercedes took their third one-two in five starts with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finishing third and 45 seconds behind race winner Nico Rosberg.
“The gap with Mercedes is there. Now we need to analyse all the data to understand,” team principal Maurizio Arrivabene told reporters.
Arrivabene said the team would use yesterday’s and today’s test at the Barcelona circuit to determine how much of the deficit could be attributed to the track characteristics and how much to the car. “We need to calm down, look at the numbers and to take a decision,” said the Italian.
Ferrari are firmly established as Mercedes’ closest rivals, with Vettel winning in Malaysia to deny them a clean sweep of victories and appearing on the podium four times so far.
However, Arrivabene said a championship challenge looked too far away, even if he still believed Ferrari could win three races this year. “I don’t really care about being on the podium,” he added. “Now every race weekend we are on the podium. But what I care about is the gap because if we want to win two or three races we have to be able to be there. At the moment we are not.”
