After the bad 2020 Formula 1 season, Scuderia Ferrari’s balance at the end of the summer break (after the first eleven races of the 2021 world championship) is often defined as positive. The priority declared by Team Principal Mattia Binotto at the beginning of the current season was third place in the constructors’ championship, accompanied by a return to fighting for podium finishes. In the middle of the season, the bronze medal among the teams is shared with McLaren while the podiums were three.
Little is said, indeed almost nothing, about the position in the standings of the two drivers from Maranello. Carlos Sainz (83 points) occupies the sixth position and precedes his teammate Charles Leclerc (80) by three points. Sixth place, behind the two Mercedes drivers, Red Bull and Lando Norris, is still reminiscent of Fernando Alonso 2014 Formula 1 season, the first of the turbo hybrid era! Looking back over the years, the Ferrari drivers did worse only last season and better in 2016 too, another difficult and winless year for the drivers of the Maranello team at that time, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
After the summer break, the triple-header of races in Belgium, Holland and Italy will be decisive for improving the drivers and constructors standings. In the first, Ferrari will attempt to recover 21 points on Sergio Perez and 25 on Valtteri Bottas despite the fact that Red Bull and Mercedes can obviously rely on a faster car, while in the constructors’ one the goal will be to stay close to McLaren and maybe even build a solid advantage in the fight for third place.
After the next three Grands Prix (Belgian Grand Prix, Dutch Grand Prix, Italian Grand Prix) there will be no more updates developments on the Ferrari SF21 car and it could become very difficult to bridge any gap with McLaren and the drivers ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the overall standings.
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