You might have thought having an “efficient” Formula 1 car would be good thing. But according to Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto, it’s his SF90’s efficiency this season that has seen the team bleed away points, as they’ve struggled to get it to switch its tyres on.

While rivals Mercedes are just three points off having taken a maximum score in the constructors’ championship this year, early season favourites Ferrari currently lag 96 points behind, having failed to finish higher than third so far. And while the SF90’s blistering straight-line performance is undeniable, Binotto revealed that this could well be linked to the current cornering deficiencies the team are experiencing…

“I think we’ve got a car that’s quite efficient – you can see it on the straight,” said Binotto. “But it doesn’t mean we’ve got the car that’s got the highest downforce in the pit lane.

“We’ve got a car that is overall efficient, but lacking in… peak of downforce. But here again it is peak of downforce [in] high speed [corners], low speed, and that is where we are.

“The tyres this season are quite different to the ones of last year,” he added. “No blame, it’s only a matter of fact. The main difference is that last year we all had very good warm up on the tyres... The tyres of this season are quite different in this respect. Warm up is a lot more difficult, and the window also, temperature targets, to get the best grip from the tyres itself, to achieve it you need to heat up the tyres.”