Formula 1: Ferrari’s disastrous 2020 season reaches all-time low

By Asher Fair | Sep 6, 2020

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Formula 1 (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /

The six Ferrari-powered Formula 1 cars beat out only the two Williams teammates in qualifying for today’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Ferrari haven’t had the 2020 Formula 1 season they were looking for. The factory team and the customer teams, Alfa Romeo and Haas, continue to struggle mightily with what is an extraordinarily weak power unit, and that has shown no signs of changing, despite a few solid runs from Charles Leclerc.

The Scuderia are on pace for their worst season in four decades if things continue on as they’ve been going. As for their two customer teams, they have scored just three points on two top 10 finishes through seven races this year, and it isn’t too far-fetched to believe that they will end the 17-race season with these exact totals.

But what was already a disaster of a season reached an all-time low — or at least, for Ferrari’s sake, hopefully an all-time low — and it did so at their home track of Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

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In qualifying for the 53-lap Italian Grand Prix around the 11-turn, 3.6-mile (5.794-kilometer) road course in Monza, Italy, the two Williams teammates qualified on the back row, with George Russell extending his perfect record to 29 races of beating his teammate in qualifying by qualifying in 19th place and rookie Nicholas Latifi qualifying in 20th.

But this was expected for these two Mercedes-powered cars. Williams have scored just one point in the last 35 races going back to 2018, and that single point came via a fluke 10th place finish in last year’s German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring when the only cars that finished behind them were either forced to retire from the race or demoted to their new positions via post-race penalties.

Here’s where things get depressing for Ferrari at the track where they took a brilliant victory last year with Leclerc behind the wheel.

All six of the Ferrari-powered cars are set to line up just ahead of the Williams teammates. In other words, without the Grove-based team, the six Ferrari engines would be powering the six slowest cars on the grid.

Leclerc led the charge in an abysmal 13th place. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen is set to start alongside him on the seventh row in 14th.

Haas teammates Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean qualified on the eighth row in 15th and 16th place, respectively. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel qualified in a terrible 17th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi in 18th.

The only team which any of the three Ferrari teams, including the factory team, completely beat in this session? Williams.

Fortunately, the Tifosi weren’t there to witness it, which should ease the pain — at least a little bit.

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The Italian Grand Prix is set to be broadcast live on ESPN beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET later this morning. Will any of these six Ferrari-powered cars manage to make their way into the top 10 to score points?

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