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Ferrari’s Marc Gene believes there is no reason why the team cannot pull back their deficit in both championships.

Ferrari brand ambassador and former long-term test driver Gene says optimism remains high within the Scuderia that the team can bounce back from their run of bad results after a double retirement for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in Azerbaijan.

Sainz retired from fourth place on lap nine with a hydraulic issue on his F1-75, while Leclerc retired from the lead on lap 20 – his second such retirement in three races.

As a result, Leclerc has slipped to 34 points behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, with Ferrari now 80 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’.

Gene revealed there is plenty of pain going on at Ferrari in the wake of another disappointment.

“Every time we’ve had a DNF with Charles, he’s been leading the race,” he said on the F1 Nation podcast.

“That is even more painful today [as] we did the right strategy call. But then you don’t see it in the result.

“So whenever we make a wrong strategy call, we are also leading. Every time we make a mistake, reliability or strategy, we lose 25 points and when we don’t make that mistake, [it’s] not always we win. So [it’s] very painful.”

The Spaniard believes Leclerc could have won the race had his engine held up, despite having made a questionably early stop for hard tyres during the Virtual Safety Car period for Sainz’s stoppage.

“Of course there are positives,” said Gene. “The