Binotto claims Ferrari have lost 1.5 seconds because of new 2019 regulations

The new aerodynamic rules that have kicked in for the 2019 season have been aimed at promoting overtaking.

F1 has suffered from ‘processional races’ in the last few years and Liberty Media is focussed on changing that in order to attract a wider audience.

But with these new aerodynamic regulations kicking in, cars have lost out on downforce, hence slowing them down.

Cars will now be able to follow each other better but lap times could take a hit.

While Binotto said, that the Ferrari is 1,5 seconds slower than the year before… Please Red Bull, don't let 2016 happen all over again.

— Mukke97VfL (@Mukke1807) February 17, 2019

Ferrari estimates this year's #F1 rule changes will make the cars slower by about 1.5 seconds a lap:https://t.co/uoRLxzeYBZ

— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) February 17, 2019

Now, while that was the initial expectation, Helmut Marko had admitted in December that Red Bull had regained all of the lost pace for the 2019 season.

“We are already back on the stand Red Bull Ring / Spa 2018. However, we are 15 million poorer,” Marko had said.

So, Red Bull have made up for the lost downforce, but apparently Ferrari haven’t, as per his comments to Motorsport.com.

“We predicted an impact of 1.5s per lap when we [first tested] in the wind tunnel [and] it’s what we got,” Binotto said as quoted by Motorsport.com

“So, these cars are heavier compared to last year, and the aerodynamics, especially the front wing, has been simplified a lot. The expectation has been 1.5s and that has been [proven].

“So, now it is how much we recover of the 1.5 seconds during the entire period of development. How much the others recovered, only the track can tell.” he added.

So have Ferrari missed a trick in car development or is Binotto trying to sandbag here?