Melbourne — Early warning signs that all was not well at Ferrari came to a head on Sunday as the would-be Formula One contenders flopped in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. While Valtteri Bottas claimed a dominant win for Mercedes and his teammate Lewis Hamilton held off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for second, Ferrari’s drivers were left scrambling for minor points in a sobering start for the Scuderia. Ferrari had been the quickest car at winter testing, just edging champions Mercedes, but Barcelona must have felt a distant memory as Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc crossed fourth and fifth, nearly a minute behind Bottas. Vettel sounded alarm bells after Friday practice when he said he felt strangely uncomfortable with the car. But the German would have hoped for better after qualifying third on Saturday. Instead, it took an order from the team garage just to preserve his fourth placing, with new boy Leclerc warned off from overtaking the four-times champion in the final ...
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