Ferrari have given a reason for their lack of pace against Red Bull, which would explain the huge gap the team has built. Mattia Binotto, the team's principal, has stated that tire degradation has played a major role in the overall performance.
He believes that tire degradation is the problem since Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz have a great qualifying pace and both have managed to out-qualify Max Verstappen & Sergio Perez most of the time.
"In the last races, I think that the performance of the Red Bull has been better than ours. Not in qualifying, because I see that in qualifying we have still got a good pace – so let me say the pure performance is still there."
Ferrari believe that Red Bull have managed to balance the balance on their car much better than them, and that is the reason they haven't been facing trouble with the tire degradation. Binotto stated:
"But then with the race pace, we are suffering tire degradation. In that respect, I think the Red Bull is a better car, so they’ve been capable of developing that car for a better balance that we didn’t."
Ferrari fans have had a tough time cheering for their team as they had a championship-winning machinery but have gone too far back to chase Red Bull on the top.
They believe that there are more issues than just tire degradation that need to be reviewed by the team. Here are some of the fans' best reactions:
Ferrari almost out of all chances of winning a championship
Max Verstappen's Championship victory seems inevitable this year, and Red Bull have created a huge gap between them and the Scuderia in second place.
However, this was not the situation at the start of the season. The championship battle was much in favor of Ferrari as they had the leading hand, and even though Verstappen has become insanely fast, it could have been a decent fight for the championship instead of a one-team domination, as analysts say.
Although the team has managed to identify the issue which is costing them the victories, Mattia Binotto stated that the reason of the tire degradation is the new aero package that was introduced. He mentioned:
“If we look back at the last races, where in terms of tyre degradation we have not been the best, we certainly had issues with the car balance.
“The reason of the poor car balance was due to aero developments that brought us there. It was a question mark for us.”
The team had earlier also revealed that there aren't enough upgrades left in the F1-75 for this year, and all championship hopes are with the upcoming 2023 season.
It could be an interesting, three-way championship battle next season as Mercedes, too, have revealed the same about their 2023 season, and Red Bull are already dominating.