Ferrari failed to put its once-promising 2019 championship hopes back on track in China.
The Italian Formula 1 team looked on track to take on Mercedes this year, but in Australia, Bahrain and now in Shanghai, it was the German outfit with 1-2 finishes.
Not just that, Ferrari is also embroiled in a team-orders scandal after telling Charles Leclerc to move aside for Sebastian Vettel.
“If there is a $30 million man and a $2.5 million man, then the hierarchy is already quite clear,” pundit Toni Vilander told Finland’s MTV.
But another outlet, Corriere della Sera, declared Leclerc the team's best hope:
“It would be better if Ferrari finally understood that they have hired the right driver, and it is Charles Leclerc. Maranello should take the captain’s armband from Vettel and give it to Leclerc.”
Leclerc was obviously upset and angry about the decision during the race in Shanghai, but afterward said he would not cause a controversy with “silly” comments.
“The guys on the pit wall know the bigger picture better than I do,” he told reporters.
But former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher told Sky Deutschland that Leclerc was “sacrificed” by Ferrari in China.
Leclerc dismissed the notion. “I wouldn’t go that far,” he said. “We are a team, and today, it didn’t work out for me, but as a team, we tried to do the best job.”
Team boss Mattia Binotto praised the youngster's approach.
“I’m glad he talks like that because it shows maturity,” he said. “It is clear that his race was a bit compromised, and if Charles is upset or angry, he has a right to that. But we tried to give space to Seb to see if he could keep the pace of the Mercedes.
“At that stage, we absolutely had to try something.”
Indeed, the main problem for Ferrari is that despite all the signs that it can take on Mercedes this year, so far, the Brackley-based team has been stronger overall.
“We tried to stick with them today, but we just couldn’t,” said Vettel. “I think these couple of weeks will be very important for us to understand where we need to go in the next months.”
And, like Leclerc, Vettel also didn’t want to fuel the media’s team orders fire.
“I don’t want to answer that because I’m a little bit against the way you (reporters) work,” said the German.
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff, however, said that it is Ferrari that is playing with fire.
“It is also clear that if you start doing this type of thing, then you open Pandora’s box,” he said. “We went through this with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton and later with Lewis and Valtteri. It’s not a Ferrari problem. It’s a problem for any team that has two alphas at the wheel.”
Ferrari must figure out if there are indeed two alphas.
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