David Croft concerned by what he spotted in Ferrari ghost car footage in Austria

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David Croft says Ferrari weren’t good enough operationally or mechanically at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton qualified second and third, but this result was somewhat misleading. Had Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli completed their laps, they were on course to be fourth and fifth.

In the race, Hamilton fell to P5, 26 seconds behind race-winner George Russell, while Leclerc alarmingly lost six places.

What went wrong for Ferrari at the Austrian Grand Prix?

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David Croft: Ferrari had ‘no chance’ against Mercedes at Austrian GP

Speaking on the F1 Show, Croft described the race as a ‘wake-up’ call for Ferrari’s power unit. Despite introducing their first ADUO-powered upgrade, they still displayed an obvious weakness on the straights.

Ferrari were 20kph down by the time they reached turn four, a sign that they were depleting their energy reserves far quicker than their rivals. Croft could see in the ghost-car footage after qualifying that polesitter Russell was streaking clear.

As for their execution, Ferrari ended up committing ‘really early’ to a three-stop strategy – Hamilton was the first driver to change tyres – even though they had said in their pre-race strategy briefing that it was ‘slow’.

Onboard footage showed Ferrari drivers chewing up their tyres, with the inside shoulder starting to wear away after only a handful of laps.

“If you looked at the ghost car comparison between Charles Leclerc and George Russell after qualifying, you would get a sense that it wasn’t going to be Ferrari’s day,” Croft said. “Mercedes were so much faster on the straights. There was no chance Ferrari were going to catch them.

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“Lewis had a bit of disagreement about strategy. Ferrari were saying on Sunday morning that the three-stopper is a little bit slow. Lewis wanted to do a three-stopper, Ferrari said, ‘No, it is a two-stopper’, then they committed really early to that three-stopper for Lewis anyway.

“As soon as he had the hard tyres on, there was no pace there with that Ferrari, for him or Charles. This is a bit of wake-up call for that Ferrari ICE and overall power unit package.”

The altitude in Austria may have exacerbated the problem, so the power-hungry Silverstone circuit should be a more representative test of the engine upgrade. Ferrari are already plotting to use their second development token this summer.