Sergio Perez has admitted a "fundamental" problem with his car ahead of this weekend's British Grand Prix.
The Mexican was glum after a difficult day on Friday, with neither free practice session at Silverstone bearing any fruit. The first was a rain-soaked affair, which saw only half of the grid set any lap time at all – neither Perez nor Max Verstappen were in that group.
There was more action for the duo in FP2 later in the afternoon, but it was still not enjoyed very much by Perez. He was almost a second off the pace of fastest man Carlos Sainz, and later seemed downcast about the lack of progress he had been able to make.
"It wasn't a great session today," said the 32-year-old. "I think from our preparation that we had and simulator, the car is miles off – so we assume that there's something going on that we need to understand. And yes, it was a very, very short long run there at the end. So yes, not a great start. We are a bit on the back foot, so we just have to understand what's going on with it.
"It's going to be pretty difficult [to recover] but we've done it before and I think as long as we are able to get things in the right place, you need the confidence around these fast corners, so as long as I'm able to get back my confidence, I think things should be alright."
He later posted on social media to pour further cold water on his chances of a strong result this weekend, writing: "Plenty of work to do tonight. We had a fundamental problem and I hope to solve it by tomorrow to be in the fight."
With Perez far from in ideal shape, an opportunity could open for Ferrari to start chipping away at the gap that has opened up between themselves and Red Bull in the constructors' championship. The Italian team's reliability issues have seen them fall 76 points behind, while Verstappen also has a healthy lead in the hunt for the drivers' title.
The Dutchman appeared unconcerned about Sainz's pace on Friday, though, even after having to settle for limited practice running himself. "It's always a bit tricky after not driving in FP1 for everyone, and then FP2 becomes of course a lot more of a bit of guessing, let's say it like that, where normally in FP1 you just build it up," he said.
"It was maybe not ideal but also not a big issue, so I think we know what we have to work on and that's what we'll try to do overnight, but again [for qualifying] probably it's raining so we have again different type of conditions. But it was okay. [We did a] few laps with the softest compound, which I think is alright.
"It's just around here with all the high-speed corners, the tyres in general, they wear a lot. It was always going to be, I think, quite tricky to manage the tyres. Every weekend [Ferrari] are fast, so it's not a surprise... [But] it was not bad, we're still in there, there's still a few things we need to look at, tyres as well – so it’s alright!"
