As all the Ferrari fans and many neutral fans of Formula 1 are celebrate the much-needed pole position by Charles Leclerc for today’s Monaco Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is playing down their chances of winning the sport’s most famous race.
Charles Leclerc surprised all and sundry, including everyone in Red, by claiming the top spot start despite crashing out in the final stages of qualifying. His incident triggered a red flag which in turn prevented anyone going faster on their final fast laps.
What followed was checking the car, as a gearbox issue would have meant a five-place grid penalty. But Maranello’s engineers decided the car is good to go and the Monegasque will start his home race, wearing a Louis Chiron tribute helmet. Netflix does not need a script writer for this one!
But race day could be a different prospect altogether as the scarlet Ferrari lines up next to a rampant Red Bull of Max Verstappen, guaranteeing fireworks into Turn 1 as track position thereafter will be paramount.
Clearly, the pace unleashed at Monaco was unexpected, even by Ferrari as Mattia Binotto said: “Being on pole was not expected but after Thursday, we were happy with the car’s performance. It’s good to see Carlos be so fast and we are getting more confident. Overall we are happy with the car performance more so than the pole. After our performance last year it is a huge step forward. I think it is a good reward for the team. It will be difficult to win from pole. Max Verstappen is very, very fast and I’m sure will give us a hard time.” – the Ferrari boss explained.
Leave a Reply