Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has insisted that he has "given up" attempting to explain small mistakes after stating the team has received a brutal "beating" by the media in recent weeks.
Ferrari started the season strongly and claimed victories in Australia and Monaco, but has struggled since introducing an upgrade for the Spanish Grand Prix.
It has seen the Maranello-based team fall to fourth in the pecking order, behind Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes. The recent British Grand Prix was particularly disappointing for the Italians, as Charles Leclerc was eliminated in Q2 and failed to score a point.
Thankfully, Ferrari has understood why it struggled in Silverstone, a performance the team principal is not concerned about.
"The result in Silverstone is misleading," Vasseur told Auto Motor und Sport. "We now understand our most recent problem better than we did before this race weekend.
"We had to sacrifice the free practice sessions on Friday for this. But the lessons learnt will help us further."
The reason why Ferrari's Spanish GP upgrade has resulted in a performance decrease is because it has caused porpoising to return.
Porpoising was a red-hot topic in 2022 which is not seen in the wind tunnel, something which has made solving its new bouncing problem difficult for Ferrari.
"The Barcelona upgrade is progress on paper," noted Vasseur. "Also to a large extent on the track. Unfortunately, bouncing returned in some fast corners. But not in all of them.
"Because this is not reproducible in the wind tunnel, it is difficult to find out what causes it. The bouncing drives up the tyre temperatures and that costs time in other areas. That's why we compared two different underfloor specifications at Silverstone.
"We now have until Budapest to find a solution. In the beginning, we will have to decide in favour of creating a condition without bouncing and sacrificing a bit of lap time.
"But the aim must be to sort out the parts that are responsible for the bouncing with an upgrade."
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Vasseur frustration
Ferrari's recent form has resulted in criticism from the media, with mistakes being made by the drivers and the team.
Even when mistakes have been avoided, Vasseur's outfit has still been faced with negativity, due to its finishing positions in qualifying and in the races.
Vasseur has urged Ferrari to "stay calm" over this due to the reactions being unfair, with the Frenchman pointing out that criticisms cannot be made when qualifying third or eighth is simply down to hundredths of a second.
"I've given up trying to explain it," insists the Ferrari boss. "In Imola we had Sainz and Russell within two thousandths of a second.
"Three races later in Barcelona, we are three hundredths behind the Mercedes. Once we get praise, then a beating. For a few hundredths of a second.
"You can argue with points, but not with lap times. We don't do a better or worse job if we are one hundredth of a second ahead or behind.
"As a team, you have to stay calm. That's not easy, because the reactions outside show big swings. In Italy more than anywhere else."
Also interesting:
In the latest episode of the RacingNews365 podcast, Ian and Nick look ahead to this weekend's Hungarian GP and who the favourites are for victory! Sergio Perez's future and the drivers who could potentially replace him are also discussed.
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