Ferrari may well have shot themselves in the foot before the season gets going, with the rumours that the engineering department weren’t too pleased with the car before testing got underway and now Binotto saying that they’re slightly on the back foot.
As Ricciardo said in an interview today, it’s the chasing teams who should be coming up with new ideas (like DAS) and Mercedes reacting to them while we actually have Mercedes dominating the WDC & WCC since 2014 and still pushing every season to stay ahead, they push all season as well if needed, Red Bull are the only ones who can match them for in season development, Ferrari have been very hit or miss in this area, normally a miss as well!
It’s why it’s hard to complain about Mercedes, granted when you look at the stats it’s unbelievably one sided to Mercedes but when they’re the complete package (on and off track) and still have the drive and passion to keep pushing and innovating to stay clear of the pack. It’s why Lewis would be a fool to leave them, only team I can see him returning to is McLaren as a bit of a swan song, sure he might be tempted by Ferrari but unless things change for the better throughout the entire team (they probably still have a terrific blame culture in place, just not as bad as previous years) why would anyone actually willingly leave the Mercedes juggernaut?
Vermilion wrote:I'd be more excited for the upcoming season were there a second Merc driver capable of beating Hamilton (as Rosberg did in 2016).
Bottas is a good driver, but it's like the Schumi/Barrichello partnership all over again.
What’s slightly annoying about Bottas is that he clearly has the pace, just not for a full season? He started off very well in 2019 but then tailed off meaning the WDC fight was very quickly over barring Hamilton not finishing a few races on the bounce.
