Ferrari's struggles make it a one-sided battle in this season’s F1 title race

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  • With 17 races still to go in the Formula 1 season, the championship is already over.

    Okay that’s a little facetious but it is difficult to see how Ferrari can make this is a genuine battle.

    Mercedes have recorded four successive one-two finishes in the first four races and look high on pace and confidence. At this early stage of the season, the points table makes for difficult viewing, with Ferrari trailing their rivals by 74-points in the constructors’ championship.

    Twelve months ago, Sebastian Vettel held a nine-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers standings. This time around the German trails the five-time world champion by 34-points.

    The Prancing Horse looked the team to beat at pre-season testing in Barcelona, with a beautiful, well-balanced machine. But in the season opener in Melbourne they could not match Mercedes’ searing pace.

    In Bahrain, Charles Leclerc led for most of the race but a mechanical issue late on denied him victory. Had the Monaco man won, there could be a different feeling around Maranello.

    Positivity did increase for Ferrari after the Gulf race, but they were average in China, where Mercedes sealed another one-two by a considerable distance.

    Fastest for a large sections of the weekend in Baku, Leclerc crashed during Q2 and was forced to start from eighth on the grid – he gained two places after penalties to Kimi Raikkonen and Pierre Gasly.

    Without him clocking a time in Q3, it’s hard to determine how much quicker he could have been if he was to start higher up the grid.

    The 21-year-old did hold the lead for a brief stint during Sunday’s race, but Ferrari kept him out on the mediums for too long, and he subsequently lost eight seconds in the space of five laps before being called in to pit on lap 35.

    Returning out on fresh softs, he had problems with getting the tyres in the correct temperature window and was unable to challenge Max Verstappen for fourth place. Another poor strategy call by the Italian marque?

    But even aside from Leclerc’s mistake in qualifying on Saturday, one significant positive is that he has proven to be a real threat to his team-mate Vettel, paling a vast contrast to previous years when Raikkonen seemed content to play second fiddle to the German’s prospects.

    It might not fully come together for Leclerc this year, but he looks a future world champion in the making. He just needs time and experience to adjust to being a central figure in one of the top teams.

    Based on form and pace in the opening races, team boss Mattia Binotto should make it a level-playing field for both drivers instead of favouritism towards Vettel. Leclerc had to agree to team orders in the first three rounds and had his race ruined in Baku due to the team’s decision to leave him out for too long on the medium tyres.

    Vettel, though, is not a four-time world champion for nothing and probably is the team’s best chance to win a world title at the moment. But the Heppenheim native is struggling to show consistent pace in qualifying this season – apart from clocking the second fastest time in Q3 in Bahrain.

    Even if we are only one fifth of the way through the season, the feeling now is Vettel is out of the title picture, Leclerc requires more experience and Ferrari out of the constructors’ championship. A shame really after such confidence in the car coming into the new season.

    Ferrari need to bounce back next weekend in Barcelona or they will be edging towards crisis point. Binotto insists he knows what the issues are with the car but it is going to take time for the package to fully flourish.

    A year that was expected to be a thrilling duel between the two top teams now looks like a one-sided season with little excitement.

    Let’s hope for reverse fortunes in Spain for one of F1’s most famous outfits.

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