Sebastian Vettel: Why Ferrari ace and Charles Leclerc struggled in Melbourne - Marko
FERRARI struggled at the Australian Grand Prix due to cooling problems.
That is according to Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko, who says Haas suffered the same issues during their opening race of 2019.
Ferrari pair Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finished fourth and fifth respectively in Melbourne.
They saw rivals Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton complete a resounding one-two for Mercedes.
Vettel’s performance significantly dropped off as the F1 race went on.
It's quite clear that Ferrari has underperformed
And Marko says Ferrari is aware of what went wrong.
"It's quite clear that Ferrari has underperformed. And also Haas,” Marko told Autosport.
"We don't know exactly, but I think they just cut back on performance because they had cooling problems.
"The Haas was suddenly slower in relation [to the rest of the field compared to its long-run pace in pre-season testing]."
Bottas’ win and bonus point for the fastest last means the Finn already has 26 points in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship battle.
Sebastian Vettel came a miserable fourth, with Max Verstappen in the Red Bull clinching third place.
Mercedes themselves revealed after the Grand Prix their understanding of why Vettel suddenly dropped off the pace.
And Marko says the German’s tyres were also an issue.
"One indication is that [Charles] Leclerc was faster with the white tyres [hards] than Vettel with the yellow ones [mediums]," said Marko.
"This means that something was wrong.
"Vettel only drove three halfway fast laps and then his pace dropped.
"Ferrari was no danger on the yellow tyre due to the temperature and their tyre degradation.
"We on the other hand did not have any issues with degradation and were not even on the limit."