Ferrari is expecting an improved showing at the Bahrain Grand Prix after making a number of “corrections” following its uncompetitive start t💞o the 2019 Formula 1 season. 

After a strong showing during pre-season testing, Ferrari had been given the early favourit🌠es tag by Merce𒈔des and Red Bull, though the Italian team struggled to match the performance of its rivals at the season-opener in Melbourne. 

Sebastian Vettel ended up nearly seven tenths adrift of Lewis Hamilton’s pole time in qualifying a🐈nd was passed by the Honda-powered Red Bull of Max Verstappen on his way to finishing a distant fourth ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc, with both drivers a minute down on race-winner Valtteri Bottas.  

Ferrari insiste✃d its low-key display in Austra⛄lia did not reflect the “real potential” of its SF90 F1 car and team principal Mattia Binotto hopes to see a better representation this weekend in Bahrain. 

“The Bahrain Gra🉐nd Prix is the second round of what will be a very🧸 long and demanding season,” Binotto said.  

“The Sakhir circuit has very different characteristics to the ꦑAustralian one, with traction and braking being key factors. 

“As a team, we will have to ensure that we have understood and rectified 𝄹the areas where we were weak in Austra🌱lia, which therefore meant we were unable to fully exploit our car’s potential. 

“In Bahrain, we expect to see the effect of the co𓂃rrections we have made, al💎though we are well aware that our competitors will once again be very strong. 

“With that in mind, we are keen to get ba🅘ck on track and face up to them.”

Speaking during the Australian Grand Prix, Vettel s🌳uggested the issues facing Ferrari were related to set-up rather than a fundamental problem with its 2019 challenger, and insisted the team was in better sha🧸pe compared to the start of the previous season. 

“Last year we left winter testing with ဣproblems on the car - it wasn’t behaving the way we wanted it, the way it should,” Vettel e♑xplained.

“This year was the opposite, the car was b𒁏ehaving the way we expected and it felt ve𝔍ry good. We had a very poor rear end last year and felt we had to trim the car towards understeer a lot. That didn’t feel great. 

“We managed for [Australia] last year, and the race pace was fine, but we weren’t there in qualifying. We got lucky in the race, but I think by Bahrain we had fixed a🏅ll our issues from winter testing last year in the first race, and that’s why I think we all of a sudden unlocked a lot more pace for last year. 

"This year, the problem that w🐲e have has nothing to do with what we have seen last year. Still all the car🀅 and all the numbers and so on made sense [in Australia], but clearly we’re missing something.”