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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has admitted that his team's car concept for the 2019 season could be wrong, which is why it is losing out to Mercedes.
The Maranello squad has not won so far in 2019, while rivals Mercedes have taken five consecutive one-two finishes at the opening five race of the year.
When the cars were launched earlier this year, Mercedes and Ferrari had adopted two different front wing designs, and the Ferrari package appeared quick after pre-season testing.
Despite a near-victory in Bahrain, Ferrari has struggled to keep up with the Silver Arrows, leading Binotto to question the design of the SF90.
"We are losing a lot in each corner, not only in the last sector, it is each single corner we are slow," said Binotto. "[There is] quite a lot of understeer. Is that only downforce or is it more than that? That is something that we really need to analyse and understand.
"Any conclusion today will be a wrong conclusion. It will take some days to really have a proper analysis and try to understand: is it a matter of balance, is it a matter of downforce, is it maybe even car concept?
"I don't know. I think we do not have the answer and I would like not to go through it."
Binotto denied that it would be a "disaster" if Ferrari discovered that there was something wrong with the design of its car, as it is always striving to improve.
"I don't think it is a disaster by the time that you are improving as a team. And as I often say, we are a young team, we are learning on a learning phase.
"I think that in terms of process and methodology there is still much to learn and I am pretty happy by the time the team is improving. If it is a concept design then it obviously depends what it is, but I think there are things that you may address within a season."
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G. Zhou
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Kean
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I find it interesting to see how basically every team except Mercedes have gone for a high rake concept, and a high mounted side pod air intake. In a way I can understand it because they're trying to copy what Adrian Newey is doing. But the success of Mercedes is obviously not only down to their ... [Read more]