Briatore: Mercedes beating Ferrari 'nothing new'
Flavio Briatore is not surprised that Ferrari is struggling to beat Mercedes in 2019.
The Maranello team began the year with many believing it has the fastest car, but so far it is Mercedes with three consecutive one-twos.
"What's wrong with Ferrari? It's nothing new," former Renault boss Briatore told Italian broadcaster La 7.
"The car has been slow for eight years," the Italian said.
Briatore said Ferrari has taken a risk by appointing Binotto, also the team's "excellent" technical director, as the new team principal for 2019.
"With Binotto, they run the risk of not having a fully dedicated boss and also becoming lost in the technical area," he said.
And in terms of speed, Briatore said: "Nothing has changed compared to last year. They have not reduced the gaps to Mercedes.
"The usual repertoire of excuses already started in the first race. Mercedes will continue to dominate," he predicted.
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Last year Ferrari started the season with 2 wins and ended with Reikonen win in USA and Hamilton had 11 wins for Mercedes and as we know Bottas failed to win a single race for them.This year we are seeing Ferrari trailing behind superior Mercedes cars but if Ferrari correct their design fault in time, then we might still see their drivers taking a few victories so in theory they could get much better as the season progresses but Mercedes always finds a way to compensate.Perhaps Mercs. might encounter a few problems ahead so that would get Ferrari a bit closer in the title chase!
It's a strange season Jadra. If the power unit of Leclerc would have held it the whole race. Ferrari would have a very dominating weekend in Bahrain. Seems like Ferrari has difficulty with the colder weather conditions. By the way did you see that this season the guy on pole didn't win a race yet?
There was a really good article on the BBC F1 site before the season started but after the Barcelona tests from a guy known as the Secret Aerodynamicist and in a nutshell, as the world media were lauding the speed of the Ferrari he said that he thought that Ferrari had gone the wrong way with their aero package and that it would yield far fewer opportunities to improve over the year. It’s worth a read. It appears to have some merit if Binotto is talking about changing the front and rear wing. My guess is this could never be a quick fix and I fear that the season could end up as a Hamilton against Bottas fight as Ferrari get back on to the right course.
And Leopold, Just like you I like the fact that the pole sitter isn’t a given for the win. Just wish that Ferrari get back up to speed and RBR start to live up to the weekly hype of their Balloon Dancer in Chief, Dr M.
Here’s the link for anyone interested.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/47527705
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