Former F1 race winner Ralf Schumacher has labelled Ferrari as the sport's "biggest problem child" and suggested the Scuderia can "forget about this season".
Charles Leclerc secured Ferrari's only podium of the season in Azerbaijan but other than that high - where the Monégasque also took pole - the first seven races have posed an arduous task.
Ferrari sits fourth in the Constructors' standings, behind runaway leaders Red Bull, Mercedes and the emerging Aston Martin outfit, with a number of issues stinging its efforts.
Leclerc has had numerous incidents either on race day or in qualifying and practice, whilst reliability has also impacted their season.
But tyre degradation has limited both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz's ability to fight rivals. The Spaniard started his home race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from second on the grid but slipped to fifth with no answer to Sergio Perez or Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
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Rocky road
Writing in his Sky Deutschland column, former Jordan, Williams and Toyota driver Schumacher said: "The biggest problem child is Ferrari. Team boss Fred Vasseur seemed at a loss.
"When I asked him how long it would take Ferrari to catch up with the leaders, his answer was: 'First we have to identify the problem, then we can say how long it will take.'
"They don't really know what the problem is - they've had the problem of the tyre degrading too quickly for a year now, and in Barcelona, apart from qualifying, they were also simply too slow.
"Ferrari still has a rocky road ahead of it. Vasseur has only been in office for a few months, which simply takes time and he has to be given it.
"He's currently in the process of bringing some new people into the team. It may take some time before they all start working and this work bears fruit.
"So it's quite possible that Ferrari can forget about this season and the beginning of next year."
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