Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has stressed that the inherent weaknesses of the team’s SF90 have still not been addressed, in spite of its race-leading performance in Canada.
Ferrari has struggled through slow- and medium-speed corners in Formula 1 this season, and has only been in the mix for wins in Bahrain, Azerbaijan and Canada.
Its advantage so far this year has been its straight-line speed, with the full-throttle sections of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve lifting Ferrari into contention for victory.
Binotto has warned that Ferrari cannot expect a repeat performance at upcoming events and that the team must work to rectify its current problems.
"It is very difficult to judge and forecast the performance but it is a circuit which is power sensitive and rear limited so not the same as Barcelona which is front limited," said Binotto on Ferrari’s Canada display.
"It is more similar to Bahrain rather than Barcelona.
"We knew coming [to Canada] we could be closer to Mercedes, how close, I don’t think we had any clue before coming.
"I think Friday performance related to them was difficult until the track improved through the weekend with more grip and we coped with that.
"The car is exactly the same as we had in Spain, no upgrades from then, so let’s say our weaknesses we have still on the car. It is as simple as that.
"We need to work, try to improve as there will be other races that are not like Canada so we need to keep fighting and challenging them."
Vettel led the race throughout but was demoted to second by a time penalty after he was judged to have re-joined unsafely and forced Lewis Hamilton to take evasive action by going wide at Turn 4.
"I think the credit really goes to the team, hard work and this track looked a bit more competitive for us so despite what happened, we’re looking forward to try and improve our car,” he said.
"There’s still work to do. I think Mercedes and Lewis were a bit faster in the race we’re still catching up but I think it was a good race overall for us."
