Ferrari making "small steps" to escape "rock bottom"

Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies has issued a damning verdict on the team's performance across the current season but insists it is making "many small steps" to recover from hitting "rock bottom".

Ferrari sits sixth in the constructors' championship standings, 25 points behind fifth-placed Renault and only 15 clear of AlphaTauri directly behind.

Technical directives regarding fuel flow and oil burning at the end of last season appear to have compromised Ferrari, leaving the Scuderia in danger of recording its worst championship position in four decades.

Questioned about the effectiveness of recent upgrades, Mekies said: “The trajectory was certainly not as we wanted, probably otherwise we would not be in this situation.

"When we said earlier that, hopefully, we have hit rock bottom, that means it didn’t go the way we wanted at all.

“But I think we are very conscious and very aware of what we need to do, of where the weaknesses are.

"The new parts are not going to bolt lap time onto the car but they are a step towards understanding if we are able to alter the characteristic we don’t like at the racetrack.

“That is what we have done, to very carefully test, and that’s one of the many small steps that will hopefully be part of our recovery road.”

Unfortunately for Ferrari fans, Mekies was unable to offer any promises that the situation will improve in the short term, declaring that the team is still trying to "identify our weaknesses".

“In fairness, the Russian Grand Prix was probably one of the very small steps back from having had such a difficult season and having to identify our weaknesses," explained Mekies.

"Across the weekend there were a few things on the car that comes as a reaction to having identified where we feel we need to improve, and there is a bit more to come next week [for the Eifel GP at the Nürburgring].

“Again, as I said, it’s not straight lap time items, but it’s items to indicate that we are playing with the right things with our car characteristic, so hopefully that is the beginning.”

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