Nico Rosberg pinpoints why ‘really disappointing’ Ferrari are now struggling this season

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As McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes fight for race wins there has been a notable absence from Ferrari in recent races.

Their best finish in the last three races was third at the Austrian Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz, while Charles Leclerc has struggled to break into the top five since his Monaco GP win.

It is an alarming change in form after Ferrari started the season as favourites to challenge Red Bull for a title, but now it is Lando Norris and McLaren who are putting the pressure on Max Verstappen and the Milton Keynes squad.

Sainz starts the Hungarian GP from fourth while Leclerc is sixth on the grid, although they have struggled to match the pace of McLaren and Red Bull with their lap times nearly half a second off Norris’ pole lap. Leclerc also suffered a heavy crash in practice, which caused a significant set back in his race weekend.

Speaking on Sky Sports, former F1 driver Nico Rosberg believes Ferrari’s recent form is linked to a recent upgrade the team made before the triple-header.

Nico Rosberg explains why Ferrari is struggling this F1 season

Teams have been rushing upgrades through to their cars in the last couple of races after spotting an opportunity when Red Bull encountered problems with its Imola update.

Red Bull’s win advantage has been slashed in the last six races as McLaren has finished closer, while Mercedes is joining in after it made a breakthrough with the W15.

Rosberg believes Ferrari are now having to backtrack after their upgrade in Spain did not work as intended.

“It’s really got away from them, it’s all about that update that went wrong,” said Rosberg.

“Now they have to backtrack and understand while everyone else is pushing ahead, especially McLaren. In the space of so few races, so far behind now, it’s really disappointing for them.”

Why Ferrari’s updates have created problems

The turn-around point came at the Spanish GP when Ferrari introduced a significant update to the SF-24, focused on the rear wing, sidepods and floor, to increase downforce at the rear of the car and enable better transitioning through the high-speed corners.

While the update worked by bringing more downforce, it produced too much and overloaded their rear suspension and caused the instability and bouncing issues both drivers have experienced. It is a problem that Lewis Hamilton once highlighted as being a ‘disaster’ at Mercedes.

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All of the teams are trying to achieve aerodynamic stability, a key challenge with the current ground effect cars, but often that can be difficult to achieve if they pile on downforce with updates.

Although it is second in the Constructors’ Championship, the Maranello-based squad might be overtaken by McLaren before the summer break given their recent form.

Ferrari must now take a step back to understand where it went wrong and make further updates if it wants to get back in the mix with Red Bull and McLaren.