Ferrari make their biggest step backwards of 2020 so far in Sochi

Lap time watch: 2020 Russian Grand Prix

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Ferrari’s conspicuously poor performances at Spa and Monza drew a lot of attention earlier this year. But in Sochi they’ve made an even bigger step backwards.

The red cars took pole position at all three tracks in 2019. At Spa this year they lapped almost half a second slower in comparison. At Monza the loss was even greater – they were almost a second slower year-on-year.

That was previously their worst performance so far this season. But at Sochi the scale of the team’s troubles are even clearer. Charles Leclerc, who took pole position with a lap of 1’31.628 last year, was quickest again for the team today, but a massive 1.611 seconds slower than he was in 2019.

Indeed, Ferrari aren’t just slower than they were last year – they lapped Sochi quicker in 2018 and 2017 as well.

Once again, only the Ferrari-powered teams are lapping slower than last year. Their rivals have, on average, improved their lap times by more than a second compared to 2019.

This includes Mercedes, who lowered the all-time track record at Sochi by just under a tenth of a second. Lewis Hamilton set a new benchmark time with a lap of 1’31.304.

Ferrari have fallen to sixth in the constructors championship but their performance this weekend suggest things could get even worse for them before the season is over. They are the seventh-quickest team at Sochi.

AlphaTauri, who’ve out-scored Ferrari in each of the last three races, were quicker than them again today. The two Italian teams are separated by just 13 points, and Ferrari are at risk of losing another championship position at their current rate.

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2020 Russian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Ferrari make their biggest step backwards of 2020 so far in Sochi”

  1. I’m still confused, how is this possible. Was Ferrari PU so much better than anything else they didn’t know for years how bad their car was? Or is the new limited PU so much worse? I can’t understand how Ferrari both lost their PU power and so much extra

    1. They lost two advantages.. the first one was the dual battery, capable of charging one battery and using the other for overtakes.
      The second is the illegal sensor manipulation, covered up with a secret agreement. Both were capable of compensating bad aero design flaws. Now they are back to the drawing board with a car development only build around an extremely strong engine.

      1. erikje,

        They lost two advantages.. the first one was the dual battery, capable of charging one battery and using the other for overtakes.

        The double battery set up has been there since 2014. It came to light in 2018 when Mercedes and through a former Ferrari employee, Lorenzo Sassi, queried the FIA about a possible trickery with regard to ERS deployment. The FIA at the time and in the person of the late Charlie Whiting responded that the dual battery set up was legal and added a second sensor starting from the 2018 Monaco GP to better monitor Ferrari ERS deployment. It was revealed later that such set up was used to enable simultaneous energy harvesting and deploying it. The first block was charged by the MGU-H while harvesting and the second block was feeding the MGU-K.

        The second is the illegal sensor manipulation, covered up with a secret agreement. Both were capable of compensating bad aero design flaws

        The 2019 car was designed following a low downforce philosophy because the engineers figured out that such set up combined with the mighty power could enable Ferrari to lock the front row and lead the races from the start which was actually the case. However, the team couldn’t transfer all the pole positions that they scored into victories for many reasons (reliability, strategy errors, drivers errors…).

  2. That’s progress for you

  3. If I remember correctly, there was suspicion in 2018 on a second battery already, then in 2019 of course the fuel. Maybe they simply had a really good chassis that helped mask somehow the loss in the PU section. And maybe this year they simply have a really bad PU + chassis..

  4. I wonder if their bad PU is just a front for terrible chassis.

    They say the chassis is better than last year. But then they must be missing like 150 bhp.

    1. Alexander C Niehaus
      27th September 2020, 0:01

      I feel the fact Haas went from challenging for 4th in the constructors with Renault in 2018 and Alpha regularly scoring points to both being worse than Williams every single weekend with Ferrari not very far ahead is a pretty telling sign the the PU is to blame. It is shocking how slow all 3 Ferrari teams are now esp after Ferrari esp last year being so dominant on power circuits.

    2. Perhaps their previous power unit was so good that they could shift focus away from their chassis design.

    3. Well, going from the best engine to the worst must surely cost them a lot of bhp. And these are undisputable facts, cause on straights they were like 13 kmh faster than mercedes last year (example canada) and this year you see how they get overtaken easily on the straights, example in spa, there’s no engine that struggles more, with mercedes > honda\renault > ferrari.

  5. When the sport gives you the most money, just to participate, you should be better than this. I have zero sympathy for Ferrari. I do feel bad for Haas and Alpha Romeo. I bet Renault has a few spare PUs they would be willing to sell for next season.

  6. Well, going from the best engine to the worst must surely cost them a lot of bhp. And these are undisputable facts, cause on straights they were like 13 kmh faster than mercedes last year (example canada) and this year you see how they get overtaken easily on the straights, example in spa, there’s no engine that struggles more, with mercedes > honda\renault > ferrari.

  7. It’s way too obvious to see how much of illegal power the 2019 Ferrari power train supplied, and a private settlement with FIA????

    This sport is so full of scums, but teams like Merc staying honest on technology front and provide the technological marvel every true fan of the sport deserve.

  8. I’m sure that at some point in future we’ll come to learn what exactly Ferrari were hiding with their NDA, whatever they were doing clearly gave them an edge and I’m sure teams who came close to points finishes or podiums will be interested too if they feel they were cheated out of them.

    I wonder if Ferrari have given up on 2021 before it’s even started, with PU regs restricting them to using pretty much what they have now it’s not looking good. In a way it makes sense to focus on 2022 and make good with a new set of regulations *if* they can be the ones to put it all together better and start a period of domination.

    However – they have obligations to their PU customers who have a right to expect a premium product and not an engine which looks like it was salvaged from a Lada Riva. I have no idea how contracts are worded but surely you’d expect teams to protect themselves financially if they are supplied with a PU which clips their wings and doesn’t meet expectations.

    Like @talus21 – I have little sympathy for Ferrari, but I do have sympathy for Haas and Alfa Romeo.

  9. Plainer than the nose on everyone’s face.
    Ferrari’s previous “advantages” are now screamingly obvious.
    FIA will never ever live down the Non Disclosure BS.
    I previously supported Ferrari’s founding team financial benefit.
    Now? Zero respect for Ferrari. Zero respect for FIA.

  10. I had in my mind to make the comment about alpha tauri catching ferrari but it was said in the article at the end. It really looks bad for ferrari, and they should je grateful for Leclercs 2 podiums, because, as it stands, in a normal processional race with no retirements I really don’t see ferrari scoring points.

  11. Very noob Ferrari chassis and engine.

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