Ferrari ‘going around in circles’ as alarming McLaren and Mercedes comparison made

Making a misstep with their Spanish GP upgrades, which was magnified by McLaren and Mercedes’ improvements, Damon Hill says Ferrari are in a “bit of a vortex”.

After two years of Red Bull’s dominance, this season’s championship has seen three teams aside from Red Bull win Grands Prix; Ferrari , McLaren and more recently Mercedes.

Worrying assessment with Ferrari ‘in a bit of a vortex’

The Scuderia were Red Bull’s nearest challengers in the early rounds when Carlos Sainz won in Australia, before Charles Leclerc broke his home jinx to win the Monaco Grand Prix.

That had Ferrari dreaming of a potential title challenge as the Scuderia sat just 24 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship with Leclerc P2 in the Drivers’ standings.

However, six races later the dream is in tatters as a misstep at the Spanish Grand Prix introduced bouncing in the high-speed corners, forcing Ferrari to roll back on their upgrades to fix the issue – something they have yet to get a handle on.

That it came around the time McLaren nailed their Miami Grand Prix upgrades before Mercedes introduced their much-lauded new front wing in Monaco only magnified Ferrari’s error.

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It meant the Italian stable dropped to third in the Constructors’ Championship behind McLaren while Mercedes’ current rate of scoring could also see them overhaul Ferrari.

The Brackley squad has secured three wins in the last four races with McLaren also multiple race winners.

Hill told the F1 Nation podcast: “They are obviously earning those positions, they’re earning the right to challenge for victories.

“McLaren notably, and also the recovery of Mercedes has been pretty dramatic since James Allison announced, ‘how could we have been so stupid?’ And now they’ve got their little tweak, whatever it is that they’ve done, to make the car work.

“Ferrari are the only people who kind of got a little bit of a vortex and going around in circles without really getting further ahead.”

His fellow podcast pundit Tom Clarkson reckons Ferrari’s season is a bit like their 2022 campaign when they won two of the first three races only to fall by the wayside with their title ambitions over by the summer break.

“Ferrari’s season,” he said, “it kind of feels a bit like 2022 with Ferrari where they started very strong and then from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards it started to unravel.

“I’m getting similar vibes from Ferrari now.

“Although it was good to see them… I felt the last couple of races before this break in Hungary and Spa they seemed to get their mojo back. Seemed to get some consistency out of the SF-24.”

Red Bull’s rivals may have more wins on the board than they did last season when the stats were 21 to one, but the list is still stacked in Max Verstappen’s favour as the Dutchman has claimed seven of 14 wins to sit 78 points ahead of Lando Norris i the Drivers’ standings.

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