Ferrari 'didn't expect to have all this pace' at Red Bull Ring

Ferrari leaves Austria knowing they have missed another opportunity. With Sergio Perez out of the race and a one-two finish within reach at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, seeing Carlos Sainz retire was a cold shower for the Ferrari men. Inside the Maranello box, however, the team is happy for Charles Leclerc’s victory.

The praise to the team
A result that Charles was missing from the Australian GP and that Team Principal Mattia Binotto commented at the end of the race: “I think there are many positive sides to be taken today. First of all, we won. We are happy for Charles, it was important for him to win again, he had a fantastic race. We come from two consecutive victories, this obviously gives us hope for the next rounds. The team did a great job in preparation for the weekend: the car was well balanced in terms of race pace and tire wear. Perfect pit stops, mechanics, a bit of everything. This is the positive part that should make us smile “, he told ‘Sky Sport F1’.

The analysis of the race
“We didn’t expect to have all this pace,” he continued. “After yesterday we had the feeling of being a little faster than them, but not so much. In addition to the conditions that have changed (it rained during the night, ed), the drivers also worked further before the race: they study, oversee the data of the Sprint, think about the correct way to use the tires … Compared to yesterday, we understood that we had to put pressure on Max from the first lap, without allowing him to create too much margin and be able to manage it. Charles did it, Verstappen had to push and this led him to wear the tires. We talked about it at length last night, but I think he made the right choice.” – Mattia Binotto explained.

“We had two cars to do it,” added the Ferrari team principal. “We also thought of differentiating the strategies, but then Max had to anticipate the stop a lot that put him on a three stop strategy, when we would only have done two. For me it was important to push him out of the double pit window and then optimize the time”.

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DNF for Carlos Sainz
Asked to comment on the engine that went up in flames on the #55 car, the Italian manager added: “I’m sorry for Carlos because we believed in it and it could have been a great result. There is motivation and now we just want to be able to do even better. Today we could have scored another potential one-two and this is definitely the sore point. We are not yet safe due to reliability problems. We have to work hard and we will try to understand to find solutions for the short term. Charles Leclerc throttle pedal problem? I stopped watching the race. I was doing anything but looking at the data. I only heard the engineers saying 4 laps at the end, 3 laps at the end … I was just hoping that we would be able to get to the end.” Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto concluded.