Ferrari’s performance in the opening race of the 2019 F1 season was very reminiscent of how they started last year.

On both occasions they were dubbed the ‘winter testing champions’ having run reliably and quickly at the Circuit de Catalunya in February and March.

But when they got to Melbourne they couldn’t keep the Mercedes in sight. In 2018 the quickest Ferrari in qualifying was 0.664 seconds slower than the pole-sitting Mercedes; last weekend the gap was 0.704 seconds.

However last year Ferrari moved on from Melbourne, sorted their car out and immediately turned the tables on Mercedes. They had the fastest car at the next three races.

On paper, that should give them cause for hope. The deficit could be specific to the unusual Melbourne circuit. After all, Mercedes were never as far ahead of Ferrari again throughout the rest of last year.

But on Sunday evening in Melbourne Sebastian Vettel revealed why the team had started last season on the back foot, and why it offers few clues as to what’s gone wrong this year.

“Now last year is one year ago so no big secrets any more,” Vettel began. “Last year we left winter testing with problems with the car. It wasn’t behaving the way we wanted it or the way it should.

“This year was the opposite. The car was behaving the way we expected and it felt very good.”

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Although Vettel won last year’s Australian Grand Prix the result was a fluke: A miscalculation by Mercedes during a Safety Car period gifted him victory when he was on course for third place in a weekend when the team was struggling with its car.

“We came here last year and the balance wasn’t right. We had a very poor rear end last year and we had to trim the car towards understeer a lot. That didn’t feel great.

“We managed for this weekend last year and obviously the race pace was fine but we weren’t there in qualifying. We got lucky in the race. By Bahrain we had a fix to our issues in winter testing and the first race last year and that’s why we all of a sudden unlocked a lot more pace last year.”

In contrast the cause of their current plight isn’t clear, said Vettel. “This year the problem that we have has nothing to do with what we have seen last year. Still the car and all the numbers and so on make sense, also this weekend. But clearly we are missing something.

“Right now we don’t have an answer but we need to get back, have a good look and I’m sure we’ll find something because I think we know the car is better than what we’ve seen, not just today but the whole weekend.”

It wasn’t just Ferrari who were surprised by their struggles in Melbourne, as Lewis Hamilton explained.

“We came into the weekend and what I was shown and led to believe from the analysis we were given was that they were ahead. And it obviously wasn’t the case during this weekend. I’m not quite sure why.”

But he is sure Ferrari will rebound. “I don’t know what their problem is but I’m sure they’ll come back strong in the next races. So we’ve got to stay on our toes.”

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2019 F1 season