Mattia Binotto post-race analysis: "Something did not work"

“We want to keep the positions won in qualifying” – this was the hope of Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto before the start of the 2021 French Grand Prix, as the Italian side attempted to keep the fifth position from Saturday with Carlos Sainz and the seventh with Charles Leclerc. The race, on the other hand, showed as never before in this 2021 season all the problems of the Ferrari SF21 car regarding the race pace.

Charles Leclerc was the first to stop in the pits due to the deterioration of his tires and then in the final he was forced to an extra stop after having finished the hard tires. The Monegasque ended up in 16th position. Carlos Sainz tried to hold on, but slipped out of the points and finished in eleventh position. A hard blow for Ferrari in the fight for third place in the Constructors’ standings, given that McLaren collected 18 points with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, thus climbing to +16 over the Maranello team.

“We did badly not only compared to Barcelona, but compared to all the other races and also to what we saw on Friday” – the honest analysis by Mattia Binotto after the checkered flag, in an interview for Sky Sport F1 – “We had a bad race, outside from the points, a blow thinking about the constructors’ standings. Something did not work. We had a lot of graining and we weren’t expecting it. We will see from the analyzes, among the hypotheses there is tyre overheating. Analyzing and understanding is always the first step to correct the issue. This year we are in trouble in terms of tire temperature in the heat, there were problems we already knew we had last year and there was no opportunity to intervene due to the limitation on regulatory level. We need to analyze data and talk to the drivers. Pressures? Pirelli has increased the pressures of the rear. In these cases the tyre slips more and more graining is generated. There will be other tracks where we will be in difficulty due to the temperature and the asphalt. Not all tracks have these characteristics, not all circuits are critical due to overheating. We will see how to correct, if we succeed.” – the Ferrari boss concluded, as reported by the Italian media.