Insider senses trouble with Ferrari's 2020 car
A Ferrari insider has revealed that all may not be well with the Maranello team's preparations for 2020.
Leo Turrini, a long-time F1 journalist with key sources at Ferrari, wrote on his Quotidiano blog that he has heard alarming news from within the fabled team.
"It seems to me that, so far, the indications from the simulator and the wind tunnel have not impressed the engineers," he said.
"But keep in mind that there is still time."
Ferrari finished second behind Mercedes in 2019, but many believe that Red Bull-Honda is now poised to take a shot at the title this year.
Turrini also commented on the future of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, given that he is out of contract this year and Charles Leclerc has just signed through 2024.
"I'm not so sure that 2020 will be Vettel's last year in red," he said. "All the more so after Verstappen extended at Red Bull."
He thinks quadruple world champion Vettel has the ability to bounce back.
"Vettel is not the least bit affected by the hostility of the Italian media, for the simple reason that he does not read much of it," said Turrini.
Finally, Turrini responded to speculation that F1's Swiss team, recently known as Sauber, could soon lose its key Alfa Romeo backing.
"Alfa Romeo being in F1 was the great idea of Marchionne, but unfortunately, sales of the Giulia and Stelvio have not been exciting," he said.
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I hope that this might be just a temporary setback, otherwise Ferrari will fall behind and no matter how good their drivers are they cannot deliver the results for the team if the cars underperform and certainly the competition is hotting up this year.Leclerc might regret signing such a long contract with Ferrari and Vettel will leave at the end .
""Alfa Romeo being in F1 was the great idea of Marchionne, but unfortunately, sales of the Giulia and Stelvio have not been exciting," he said."
It shouldn't take an Einstein to figure this out.
Alfa has, historically, been a driver's car and has always had a core of dedicated followers and owners. Rather than cultivating that niche, Alfa went after the American housewives and threw the baby out with the bath water. Combining Alfa's legendary lack of reliability with housewives' coffee mug and cell phone while driving priorities was a guaranteed prescription for failure.
Rather unfortunate, but then Marchionne was an accountant, not a car man. So.....