Ralf Schumacher flunks Ferrari: “It won’t close the gap”

A familiar name from the parts of Maranello, however, who flunks the Reds this season.

Ralf Schumacher does not believe in Ferrari, or at least in its revival during 2023. The German raced in Formula 1 for Jordan, Williams, and Toyota in the same years his brother was winning races and titles at Maranello, but he now sees a situation far more complex and perhaps irretrievable in the short term.

“I don’t think Ferrari is able to close the gap with the teams that are ahead of them,” Ralf Schumacher told the microphones of ‘Sky Deutschland’ in fact. My impression is that they have reliability woes and have relied on a design that doesn’t work. Changing it now and in a profound way, however, is likely to be complex.”

“In fact, Formula 1 has to comply with the constraints of the budget cap,” Ralf Schumacher recalled. “Therefore, it is not possible to incur large expenditures, and this makes it take a long time to correct wrong designs. At Ferrari they will certainly use the Formula 1 break to fine-tune improvements, but three weeks goes by quickly. And guarantees are needed for any upgrades, which have to be right.”