Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto can only be disappointed at the end of the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix. On the Portimao track, the Italian side hoped to be able to recover points in the constructors’ classification on McLaren, also taking into consideration Daniel Ricciardo’s 16th place in qualifying. The Maranello team, on the other hand, lost four points to the Woking team and also lost points to Alpine, who managed to finish in the top-10 with both cars.
If Charles Leclerc’s sixth place can be satisfactory, Carlos Sainz’s points are missing due to tp the 11th place finish. The Spaniard, however, in the initial stages of the race was even in contention for fifth position.
What penalized him was Ferrari’s attempt to overtake his friend Lando Norris in the pits. A decision that certainly the number one of the Ferrari wall regrets: “Is there a mistake in strategy with Sainz? More than that, there was an excess of ambition in wanting to overtake Norris at that moment of the race, when perhaps we could have been more patient.” – Mattia Binotto admitted to Sky Sport F1 – “The race was still very long, we could have waited for further indications. With the soft Sainz was doing well. At that moment we exaggerated our ambition to overtake Norris” – explained the Ferrari team principal.
“We are certainly disappointed with this race” Mattia Binotto added, analyzing the Portimao weekend – “We wanted a different and better result. Portimao on paper could have favored us over our direct competitors. It was not so. We weren’t perfect with Charles yesterday in qualifying. Same today. Carlos was as fast as Norris in the first stint with the softs, maybe even faster. Then we wanted to try an undercut that didn’t work and actually put him in trouble for the rest of the race. He had to push too hard and immediately on the medium tires, he had graining. This took him out of the points and it is not the result we wanted and hoped for.” – Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto concluded at the end of the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix.
