Ferrari is "easy to beat" when emotions are running high at the Italian team. That is the view of Niki Lauda, a former Ferrari driver who is now the team chairman at the Maranello marque's arch-rival Mercedes.
Despite an earlier strong challenge, Sebastian Vettel's 2017 title campaign fell apart recently amid car failures, and new rumours team Maurizio Arrivabene could be sacked as a direct consequence. But Lauda said that sort of chaos would simply show that Ferrari is falling back into bad old habits.
"Ferrari is hard to beat when there is inner peace and trust in their own performance," he told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in Austin. "But they are easy to beat when they stand in their own way with performance pressure, high expectations and when people are emotional and insecure," Lauda added.
Mercedes beat Ferrari to the 2017 constructors' world championship on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton needs only to finish fifth in Mexico this weekend to win his fourth drivers' crown. (GMM)
It isnt about being butthurt, its about being understandably mad about an unfair advantage. Reliability wasnt really a factor in this race, so lets ignore it for now. Likewise, Vettel didnt really drive badly this race, if anything we should poke a bit on Kimi. Driving one of the better cars but losing places immediately on start is a bit meh, and I expect more from him.
There is no denying that Mercedes benefit from burning oil. It enhances both reliability and power so significantly that rules against the practice was set up. And for silly reasons, the FIA allowed Mercedes, the guys who has benefitted the most from it (remember, this isnt their first season of doing it), to continue burning oil, while their closest rival had to choose between upgrading their unit or burning oil. Not only is that unfair, its dismal.
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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Rindtchamp
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Translated "Ferrari are easy to beat because our engine is so much better and the FIA allow us to cheat and burn more oil than anyone else"