Ferrari Lost Momentum After Bahrain Defeat - Wolff

Date: 08 July 2019 - 21:48

News ID: ۶۷۸۶۸

ROME (Dispatches) - Ferrari had come into the 2019 season as favorite after showing strong pace in winter testing, but it is still without a win.
The Italian outfit first stumbled in Australia when it got its set-up wrong, but it then looked all set to bounce back in style in Bahrain when it delivered the fastest car and Leclerc appeared on his way to a maiden win.
However, with just more than 10 laps to go, Leclerc suffered a short circuit within his injection system control unit and his pace fell away – leaving the way open for Lewis Hamilton to take the victory.
Reflecting on the campaign and the dominance of Mercedes, Wolff thinks that the Bahrain defeat proved especially costly for Ferrari – which has seen other opportunities slip through its fingers too.
"I think somehow the momentum that Ferrari had in Bahrain was lost because they had the quickest car and they should have won the race with Leclerc," Wolff told Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview.
Wolff also insists that its pre-season concerns about Ferrari's form were genuine, and that there was no suggestion of his team having sandbagged in early running with its car.
Although Mercedes' situation at the first test looked worse than reality, because the outfit was only running an interim car, Wolff says concerns grew at the second test when its definitive W10 did not work as expected.
*****Wolff pinpoints when Ferrari lost momentum in title race