The honest but damning verdict on Ferrari's 2020 form

No Ferrari-powered driver finished in the top eight in a single one of the Styrian Grand Prix's four track sessions. Another one of the works team's drivers fell in Q2 and picked up a penalty in the same segment. Then came the race that lasted all of three corners for the Scuderia.

When the lights went out last Sunday, things got worse for Ferrari when Sebastian Vettel slipped behind Williams driver George Russell and Racing Point's Lance Stroll off the line, and then the team's worst nightmare happened - for the second time in four Formula 1 races - when their drivers collided at the race's third corner, with Charles Leclerc at fault for wiping out his team-mate.

The words of team principal Mattia Binotto summed things up.

"We have to work out why and change this state of affairs, which is just not good enough for a team by the name of Ferrari," he said. "We mustn't get het up about it, but we cannot ignore the facts."

The thing is, he said this before the race, in an official Ferrari team statement that was supplied after Vettel and Leclerc had qualified 10th and 11th (with Leclerc later demoted to 14th for blocking Daniil Kvyat) while running updated parts of their SF1000s in the wet session Vettel had been hoping for.

Binotto earned much praise for revitalising Ferrari after the clammed-up era that characterised Maurizio Arrivabene's time in charge of the team. And he should be praised for his honesty in these remarks. This doesn't sound like a person running from their problems or refusing to admit they exist. Grasping and addressing an issue will get it solved much faster than ignoring it...

But things look far worse for Ferrari than surely was ever feared when its 2020 challenger underwhelmed in winter testing, down on straightline speed - perhaps explained by the team's "settlement" with the FIA over its previous power unit arrangement - at Barcelona.

The car is also too draggy, which is exacerbating the power problem, and it is clearly a handful for the drivers. To fix these issues, Ferrari is attempting to redefine the car's nature with a major development package - initially expected for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, but with the new front wing and floor hurried out for the Styrian event.

Ferrari did improve its best Friday practice lap - by 0.255s - compared to the previous event, but then so did all the other teams bar Haas, which was 0.112s slower

The threat of the rain that did indeed arrive last Saturday meant most of the teams went about their business a little differently in FP2 - usually the domain of race-data gathering. There were more shorter efforts to ensure a good grid spot, but Ferrari didn't seem to chase the headline lap times with its updates and in any case it concentrated on the medium tyres, which it did not run in second practice for the Austrian GP - so we cannot draw firm comparisons despite the stable location.

Ferrari did improve its best Friday practice lap - by 0.255s - compared to the previous event, but then so did all the other teams bar Haas, which was 0.112s slower. This was pretty inevitable given the engineering prowess in the F1 paddock was given a chance to put lessons learned at one race right into action at the same venue for the first time in the championship's history.

Ferrari's straightline speed deficit again stood out last weekend. Its customer squads Haas and Alfa Romeo remained well down the timesheets at a fast track with plenty of high-speed running. At the head of the pack, Red Bull felt that this was where Mercedes had the ultimate edge and has said it is targeting the Hungaroring race to see what it really stands, chassis-wise. Ferrari must also do the same at a venue that is much less power dependant compared to the Red Bull Ring.

Ferrari's reliability at least seems to be good, with the six Ferrari-powered cars taking seven finishes in Austria this year - which should really have been 12, with the five retirements down to Haas' brake problems and a loose wheel at Alfa Romeo in the season opener, plus Leclerc's moment of madness in race two.

The Turn 3 crash - where Leclerc, desperate to make amends for his qualifying underperformance, tried to "gain three or four places" with a move that was just never on - was another costly driver error in a red car. To be fair to Leclerc, who without a doubt is one of F1's best drivers, he immediately owned the mistake and apologised to Vettel and the team.

But the combination of all Ferrari's problems has left it with nowhere to hide, and this was summed up by the team's former technical director, Ross Brawn, after the Styrian disaster.

"One of the biggest problems for Ferrari is that of all the teams on the grid, they come under the closest scrutiny from the media, particularly in Italy," wrote F1's sporting boss. "I know from my own experience that the media pressure in Italy can be incredibly intense, and you have to make sure it doesn't get to your people.

"The management have to cope with it and make sure the staff maintain the faith and stay focused on what needs to be done. They aren't going to turn it around overnight, and there's a long road ahead of them. They need to find out if there is a fundamental problem with the car - and they need to find out fast - because clearly they are some way off the pace."

It looks like there are two fundamental problems at play for Ferrari - the SF1000 is down on power and grip, a nightmare mix for any team. The bigger problem is that the 2020 cars will mostly be carried over to 2021 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic cost-saving measures. So, unless Ferrari can somehow turn everything around, it will carry a deficit for effectively two seasons.

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This problem will be further highlighted by the pace and results for McLaren's cars - especially the one driven by Carlos Sainz Jr, as he will replace Vettel for next year, and is already being asked what it feels like to see the team he will be joining scrapping in the mid-pack when it should be fighting Mercedes and Red Bull.

"I haven't really thought about it or thought about the carryover [from] this Ferrari forming to next year," he insisted when Autosport put this to him ahead last weekend's race.

"I'm confident they've always been at the top in Formula 1 and they will make it back there soon or sooner rather than later. And I'm happy to fight them on track."

Nevertheless, last weekend will have been uncomfortable viewing for any Ferrari fan - and many impartial onlookers too. This is a brilliant team with a tremendously storied history in motorsport. F1 is surely better off to have it in contention for victory - with the Mercedes/Ferrari/McLaren podium in race one the sort of mix the championship needs, even if the reigning champion squad doesn't look like being challenged right now.

It has now been 13 years since Ferrari last had a reigning champion - the second biggest gap in its history (ahead of 1964-75 but behind 1979-2000).

So, it must hope it can find inspiration from the despair of Binotto's frank and fair assessment, and also move on faster thanks to Leclerc's honesty. Such brutal appraisal is a feature of winning teams - just look at Mercedes, or the Brawn-era Ferrari team - both squads that leave (or left) no stone unturned, even if that means having these uncomfortable conversations.