Ralf Schumacher dubbed Ferrari the "problem child" of the Formula 1 world as he suggested the team needs to "forget about this season".
The Italians were the closest challengers to Red Bull last year having created a car which was, in the first half of the season at least, on par in terms of performance. But they fell away in the second half of the year after an FIA rule change hampered their progress.
With expectations always so high, Ferrari were planning to be in a title fight again this year. All the noises coming out of Maranello over the winter indicated they were very confident in their latest machine.
But, so far, they have done little other than underwhelm. They have been contenders in qualifying, but race pace has been well below the standard expected with high tyre degradation one of their obvious problems.
In Barcelona, Carlos Sainz qualified on the front row but Charles Leclerc couldn't make it out of Q1. In the race, the Spaniard slid back to fifth while his team-mate could not make it into the points places after starting in the pit lane.
The result had Schumacher, who now works as a pundit for Sky Germany, wondering if the Italians might soon give up on this season and focus their efforts on developing their 2024 car. "The biggest problem child is Ferrari," the former F1 racer wrote in his column.
"Team boss Frederic 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. Vasseur has only been in office for a few months, it just takes time and you have to give him that.
"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."
Meanwhile, Leclerc is simply desperate for an answer to their tyre management problems. The Monegasque said after the Spain race: "I think where we really need to put all our focus is to try and be more often at the peak of our tyres, and know how to manage them better."
