When the memories of the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix fade, the rankings will remain. For Scuderia Ferrari, the race result is not in itself exciting, a fourth place (behind an Aston Martin and an AlphaTauri) immediately suggests a difficult Sunday, but the Maranello team has achieved an important goal in the Constructors’ standings .
The total of 16 points as compared to 12 over direct rivals McLaren allowed Ferrari to reach third place, behind Red Bull and Mercedes, which is the position that at the beginning of the year was indicated by Mattia Binotto as the goal of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
It is the classic view of a glass half full. If the analysis of the Azerbaijan weekend is evaluated according to what we saw on Sunday alone, it is not a pretty sight, as Mattia Binotto himself admitted:
“It wasn’t our best performance, we expected something more after qualifying, but it was a difficult race in which we weren’t perfect in several areas.”
After Saturday’s pole position, the entire Ferrari team stressed that it would be difficult to maintain that kind of performance in the race, and they were right. But it is one thing to say it, it is quite another to see Charles Leclerc falling behind lap after lap, overtaken by his opponent, helpless and without weapons to be able to defend himself, which was an abrupt return to reality.
The SF21 struggled a lot with the soft tires, starting with the first stint of the race. When Charles Leclerc entered the pits on lap 9, he had already been overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, then was overcut by Pierre Gasly and was finally overtaken by Sebastian Vettel. “We knew we would struggle with the soft tyres” – Mattia Binotto admitted – “While with the hard tires we went better, but the performance varied a lot between when we found ourselves in clean air, the condition in which we went better, and in traffic, when we have suffered the most. But undoubtedly we still have to improve our race pace.” – the Ferrari boss added.
However, if the analysis extends to the whole weekend in Baku, starting from what were the expectations ahead of Friday, then the assessments on the Azerbaijani trip change.
After the Monte Carlo race, Scuderia Ferrari was very afraid of McLaren on the Baku layout, and having concluded the weekend in their favor in terms of points, and with a pole position to their credit, it is not a bad balance sheet. . It depends on how you want to see it.
That the SF21 is not Ferrari’s car of rebirth is a certified fact and has been in the archives for some time, just remember the sixth and eighth place of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the inaugural race in Bahrain, more than a minute behind the winner Hamilton.
That starting point should not be forgotten. The problems that exist were all clearly visible in Sakhir, and have been analyzed and commented on. However, after Bahrain the team worked in the right direction, confirming itself as the third force in Barcelona and able to fight for the victory in Monaco.
Then, quite surprisingly, the pole position in Baku arrived, which suddenly made us imagine goals that are not within the reach of the SF21:
“It was fantastic to get pole position both in Monaco and here in Baku” – confirmed mattia Binotto – “but I don’t think these results reflect our real overall potential. We know that there are two teams on the track that are faster than us, but we are progressing, we are using our car in a better way than at the beginning of the season and there will be developments in the future. And finally we are third in the Constructors’ championship” – concluded Mattia Binotto – “it had never happened since the start of the season. We have a margin of only two points, but this step forward confirms that we are progressing. I think there have been positives to emerge from this weekend, as well as things to learn. Now we have three races in a row in the next few weeks, which will be very important, the goal is to concentrate and try to go even further.”
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