Ferrari has 'a lot of stomach aches' to even compete for the title in 2023, says former F1 world champion

According to former F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, Ferrari has too many lingering issues to compete for the title in 2023. He opined during an interview with AvD Motor & Sport Magazine on SPORT1.

Ferrari briefly bumped up to the front of the grid in the 2022 F1 season. The team won two of the first three races in 2022 and showed great promise as a title-contending team. But things quickly unraveled and went south because of significant reliability issues.

Operational mistakes compounded it on the grid and in the pit. This cost the team several podium finishes, as the drivers led the race at one point but didn't finish in the top 3.

Red Bull capitalized on Ferrari's mistakes and dominated the season. After it concluded, team principal Mattia Binotto was asked to step down and was replaced by Fred Vasseur from Alfa Romeo.

Given the shuffling of top personnel at Ferrari, Rosberg felt that the team was not adequately positioned to compete with too many moving parts.

More importantly, in the absence of a strong leader like Toto Wolff, the team lacks direction, Rosberg said,

“I see a lot of stomach pains there. It's incredibly difficult to fill this position. When I see what Toto Wolff is doing at Mercedes. The best team leader for me and definitely one of the best of all time. There is no such thing as finding such competence for Ferrari. They simply screwed up some of the past season. They haven't developed as well as other teams like Red Bull,"

He added,

“They made a lot of operational mistakes, so an incredible number of operational mistakes. With the strategy, pit stop, driving errors, this and that. Unbelievable that there could be so many mistakes at once.”

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Ferrari replaces Binotto with Vasseur

The Italian squad has changed team personnel at the senior management level. Mattia Binotto was primarily responsible for bringing the team back to the front of the grid. In his farewell note to the team, the long-time team boss said,

“I would like to thank Mattia for his many great contributions over 28 years with Ferrari and particularly for leading the team back to a position of competitiveness during this past year. As a result, we are in a strong position to renew our challenge, above all for our amazing fans around the world, to win the ultimate prize in motorsport. Everyone here at the Scuderia and in the wider Ferrari community wishes Mattia well for the future.”

Binotto's departure again reflects the trigger-happy nature of how things are carried out in Maranello. The Italian was replaced after beating Mercedes in the championship this season.