Ferrari lacking in all areas as mid-field F1 runners get into mix

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari needs to upgrade the entire SF1000 package to perform at the front of the F1 field after a lacklustre opening day at the Austrian Grand Prix saw it comfortably off Mercedes’ pace.

Coming into the 2020 F1 season admitting it will likely perform below expectations, Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc ended Friday free practice in fourth and ninth positions, far off Mercedes and battling the likes of Racing Point, Renault and McLaren.

With Ferrari preparing an upgrade package for round three in Hungary, Leclerc admits there isn’t one single area where the SF1000 struggling, adding it needs to make an overall step in performance.

“It felt good to be back in the car but on the other hand it’s not a great day for us, what we expected, lot of cars are very close, exciting to see on one hand but on the other hand we’d like to be fighting a bit more up in the standings. We need to work quite hard for tomorrow and see how we go

“The balance is not that bad, it’s not completely out of place for now so we need to work quite hard to catch up as an overall performance.

“The speed in the corner we seem to lose compare to the others, then the balance feels quite good but the overall grip of the car, I guess it is not only one thing it is also the full package we need to upgrade.”

It's a conclusion shared by Vettel, who says Ferrari it lacking in all areas at the moment.

"We didn't look much at Renault, Racing Point and McLaren, so it is always difficult to predict what fuel loads people were running. I think we will see Saturday. I think we can say Mercedes seems to be fastest, Red Bull was a bit unclear, I don't think they showed everything, but hope we can be very similar.

"Right now [we don't have the pace to fight] but it is up to us to develop and work to make the car faster, I think we are lacking overall grip and downforce compared to others, lacking a bit down the straights, so it is a mix of all these things."