Mika Hakkinen believes Ferrari F1’s small concerns at the start of the season were actually “really big problems"

Two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen highlighted the issues that Ferrari is facing this season and further mentioned that the 'small problems' that the drivers have been mentioning are actually major issues that the Italian team needs to solve.

Unfortunately, Ferrari's performance has dropped in terms of competitiveness within the ongoing season as well as the previous one. They were contenders for the world championship in 2022 and currently stand in fourth position. Although their drivers have spoken about a few 'small' problems, Hakkinen expressed his opinion that these issues are actually of greater significance, in a conversation with Gazzetta dello Sport:

"Seeing it in action in certain corners I said to myself: 'Oh, they've got the wrong car'. After the first outing, the riders said they had small problems, but from my point of view they were really big problems, even more so because the Red Bull was flying."

Attempting to relieve the Tifosi, he mentioned that issues like this can be solved and the performance of the vehicle is possibly recoverable. Hakkinen used McLaren as an example, stating that the team had managed to improve significantly in recent races:

"But recovery is possible: what McLaren did recently is a great example. In Woking, no one pointed the finger at anyone, they worked hard. It's the people that make the difference."

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Hakkinen states Ferrari drivers are not 'rookies'

Although an uncompetitive, high tire degrading car is one of the major reasons why the Scuderia is losing out on points and victories this season, there have been a few 'driver errors as well. The number of overtakes that both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have performed remains low, and it seems hard to catch up on any of the cars that are ahead of them.

While these can be regarded as driver issues, Mika Hakkinen feels that these only exist because of the issues that the car itself has. According to him, both Ferrari drivers are 'not rookies,' and don't need to be trained to drive, and issues like these generally happen when the car is "hard to drive:"

"When your car is difficult to drive, the possibility of making mistakes is higher, the two Ferrari drivers are always at the limit. Leclerc and Sainz are not rookie drivers who need to learn."