Ferrari considering stopping 2020 car development if "gap is too big"

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has admitted his side will consider abandoning the 2020 car's development if the gap to the teams ahead is too big after the first races, with the Scuderia seeming off the pace from rivals Mercedes in pre-season testing.

Although many of Ferrari's rivals think the Italian works team are playing mind games by talking themselves down, the data from pre-season testing in Barcelona does suggest the team is not at the same level as either Aston Martin Red Bull Racing or Mercedes.

Starting 2020 on the back foot, it could prove too big of a task for Ferrari to catch up to their competitors, and Binotto admits if the gap is big enough, they might give up on the season with the big regulation changes set to take force in 2021.

"I think it's a compromise that we need to find out. I think we are very early in the season, and you cannot compromise the entire season itself," Binotto said last Friday at the Circuit de Catalunya when quizzed about how catching up in 2020 will affect the 2021 car's development.

"If I see after a few races, and we will still understand that the gap is too big, then maybe it's a consideration [abandoning the 2020 car] that we can take into account.

"But it's early stage right now. I think it's just few days of testing. I think there are things that we can address on the car, hopefully quite soon. So at the moment, we should keep our plan as it was for 2020/2021."

Whether Ferrari were actually playing mind games or whether they actually are far behind, we will have to find out next week in Melbourne when the 2020 season kicks off.