'Catching Red Bull possible, but Max Verstappen is another story'

He worked with one of the all-time great drivers in Formula 1 history. As a track engineer, Luca Baldisserri saw how Michael Schumacher was virtually unbeatable for years in his Ferrari days, just as Max Verstappen has dominated F1 for two seasons with his Red Bull. As then, he is full of admiration.

With the F1 season now a closed book, Baldisserri looks back in the Gazzetta dello Sport at a year in which his beloved Ferrari won one Grand Prix. All other races fell to Red Bull Racing, 19 of which came in the name of the now three-time world champion Verstappen. The Italian saw Ferrari perform "at an acceptable level", but was simply no match for the Austrian squad.

"When I analyse a single seater, I always do it by looking at the performance of the second driver. And in that sense, it is even clearer that Ferrari's performance was not much less than that of Sergio Perez's Red Bull. The other car was further ahead because it was driven by an alien," Baldisserri said.

The former engineer believes that in terms of speed, Ferrari was fine and Red Bull Racing is definitely catching up. "Also because the rules remain stable, which should help us get further there. To know exactly what is needed, we really need to work in the team. However, it is one thing to catch up with Red Bull, another, slightly more difficult thing is to catch up with Red Bull ánd Verstappen."