Ferrari boss hopes ‘different Bahrain layout’ will offer ‘opportunity’ next week. Mattia Binotto on the race in Bahrain.

It was a disappointing race for Scuderia Ferrari, which brought home just a single point thanks to a tenth place finish for Charles Leclerc. Sebastian Vettel was 13th, having been forced to spend most of the race towards the back of the field.

The race. The race was stopped for over an hour while the barriers were replaced. At the restart, Charles got away well to move up to seventh. He then lost a few places and found himself fighting around tenth place, which is where he eventually finished, having struggled to find a good pace especially in the early stages. Sebastian ended up towards the back of the pack, due to the fact he had to avoid Lance Stroll’s overturned car on the opening lap and spent his race in the lower half of the field, unable to move up into the points.

Same place, different track. The Formula 1 World Championship stays in Bahrain for next weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix which takes place at the same circuit, but on a different track layout, the Outer Track.

Mattia Binotto, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal
“The outcome of today’s race is secondary to the relief we felt when Romain Grosjean got out of his car after that terrifying accident. The fact that he suffered only minor injuries is a testament to the amazing job done by the FIA in terms of safety and the courage and professionalism of all those involved on that front at a Grand Prix. But for the progress made in recent years and above all the introduction of the halo, we might have been commenting on a tragedy.

As for our race, it was disappointing, but we had seen right from Friday that we would struggle this weekend. Now we have a few days in which to analyse all the data carefully and see how we can improve the car’s handling for next weekend. As we stay in Sakhir, the track conditions and temperatures should be the same, but we will be racing on a different layout for the very first time, which could present us with an opportunity. It will be up to us to grasp it and to do better than we did today.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.