'Ferrari denies it has been knocked back by FIA technical directive'

We should not be surprised if the Ferrari's will be a lot closer to the RB18's of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in terms of speed on Sunday's race. The Maranello-based team is said to have put a lot of effort into its race set-up. It could explain the big gap to Max Verstappen in qualifying. Or is it because, since this weekend, a new technical directive has been enforced by the FIA?

According to Car, Motor und Sport Ferrari already knew that Red Bull would be the superior team on Saturday afternoon. For that reason Ferrari took the gamble to drive with more downforce. That should play into their hands in the race, especially since Red Bull had problems with tyre wear in the free practice with a setup with less downforce.

Rest at Ferrari

At Ferrari, they are not panicking. The fact that Verstappen managed a 1:43.665 is, according to the Italians, mainly due to the fact that the Dutchman outperformed his material. For the more 'realistic' speed of the RB18, they point to Sergio Perez and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. The real difference between the RB18 and F1-75 is certainly not six-tenths, they think at Ferrari.

Moreover, Ferrari say that Spa is simply a Red Bull track. The RB18 is the more efficient car, generates more downforce under the car and so can easily be competitive with smaller wings and thus less downforce.

Or is there more to it?

However, according to the aforementioned German medium, there is also a theory that Ferrari has been thrown back by the new technical guidelines and that this is where the gap with Red Bull comes from. Since this week the FIA checks whether F1 cars do not bounce too much. Ferrari might have had to adjust the car higher because it bounced too much at first. Ferrari itself however says that this is not true.