"Unexperienced" Ferrari "never promised to win the title this year"

“Unexperienced” Ferrari “never promised to win the title this year” – Mattia Binotto. Binotto on 2022 season.

Scuderia Ferrari arrived in Abu Dhabi with the goal of finishing second in the Constructors’ standings and in the Drivers’ standings with Charles Leclerc. Mercedes and Sergio Perez were not easy opponents to face, although the Brackley-based team was particularly behind in the standings with 19 points to recover ahead of this weekend.

The Maranello team achieved both objectives despite a weekend that was preceded by speculation about Mattia Binotto’s future as team principal, after the reports from Italy that Frederic Vasseur would replace him from 2023

The current Ferrari team principal was interviewed by Sky Sport F1 and underlined that the 2022 Formula 1 season should be considered as a positive one for Ferrari, given that the main goal of returning to being competitive and fighting for race wins has been achieved as evidenced by this last race of the championship in which Charles Leclerc finished in second place, about eight seconds behind world champion Max Verstappen: “I believe that the team has grown a lot both this year and in past years, 2020 and 2021 were the most difficult and toughest years, no one would have bet that we would have this level of performance at the beginning of this season given the new rules and regulation.” – Mattia Binotto explained at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“That was our target, we showed up ready for the first race of the season. We never promised that we would win the championship, but we promised to be competitive. What this year has shown is that we weren’t yet experienced and ready for victory, that’s the fact, we’ve had some good weekends, some less good where we’ve made mistakes. Being competitive and winning are two different things. We have made mistakes from which we will have to learn. The team showed that they know how to work even in moments of strong criticism and they proved it again today by not giving up ambition and goals, they worked as a team”. – Mattia Binotto concluded.