Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto faces the present thinking about the future, when the Italian side will have to return to fighting for the F1 World Championship taking advantage of the change in regulations next year, with the switch to ground-effect single-seaters.
Ferrari is in contention with McLaren for third place in the Constructors’ World Championship this season and the result in the first race at Red Bull Ring, after the serious setback at Paul Ricard, encourages the idea that the goal is still within the Maranello team’s reach:
“If you look at France, it was a weekend in which we could have prepared better, but compared to last year, there has been a significant improvement that I think is evident, but something is still missing to think about joining the top teams.”
“Let’s not forget that our car is the same as the one in Bahrain on which we try to maximize its full potential. Sometimes we didn’t succeed like in France, perhaps with choices that in hindsight could have been different, but also due to the weaknesses of the car itself. These weaknesses will not disappear, just as the differences from the best will not disappear. On this it is better not to create false expectations.”
“I believe that on our part there is a desire to do better, to correct mistakes and to learn. This is true in all areas of work: if we look at yesterday’s stops, they were good pit stops, as well as the race strategy, the set-up choices and the integration of the drivers, but there are many things still to be done to make sure that next year we can have a better car and a team that can be competitive.”
Did you expect such a strong Red Bull and a struggling Mercedes after seven world titles in a row?
“Before looking at the technical aspect, and it must be acknowledged that Red Bull did a great job, I think it is fair to underline that they are achieving excellent results because they can count on a team that has been stable for many years, despite having faced difficulties, despite not winning, they continued to build a group to try and improve their car. And what we see now is the result of that work ”.
Mattia does not say it clearly, but Ferrari is drawing inspiration precisely from the modalities that brought Red Bull back into the fight: no big names from the market, but the cohesion of a group that is cementing itself in an ambitious project for 2022 …
“If, on the other hand, we look at Mercedes over the course of last year, there have been significant internal changes, with roles that may have been revised and the signing with the driver only arrived in February. I think they are signs of a distraction that has led to the current situation ”.
There is a lot of talk about a possible jump in power of the Honda engine …
“I do not agree with what I hear and read around, because the performance of the Honda engine, looking at the GPS data, corresponds to the performance they had at the beginning of the season in Bahrain. Then they had to reduce performance due to reliability issues. I believe that by solving them they have returned to the standards they had at the beginning of the season. There has been no growth. We from Bahrain onwards have always had the same level of performance because the engine allowed it. So for Red Bull it is not a question of having taken a step forward, because this would not be allowed by the regulation.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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