“I don’t think that is reflecting our true performance”– Ferrari poles in Monaco and Baku are misleading, says Mattia Binotto.
Despite Ferrari having two poles in the last two Grand Prix, it has managed to get on the podium only once in 2021. However, Ferrari could have registered a win in Monaco due to its narrow lanes if Charles Leclerc hadn’t got a DNS.
Nevertheless, Mattia Binotto is unaffected by the win or loss, as he claims that the two poles in Monaco and Baku are not the true reflection of their current ability, and more work is required.
“I think obviously there are two cars ahead of us which are still stronger, no doubt,” Binotto said in Baku. “It was great to have pole position both in Monaco and here in Baku, but I don’t think that is reflecting our true performance overall.”
“I think there are two cars which are stronger, but we are progressing. We are progressing because eventually, we are learning [about] the car, we are exploiting it better compared to the start of the season. And we know that there will be some developments coming in the future.”
“So overall, I think that’s where we are. [In the race] I think we were hoping for a better pace overall, seeing the qualy.”
Foresaw the struggles of Ferrari with the soft tyres
Binotto claims that he predicted Ferrari’s struggles with Pirelli’s soft compound tyre and in the dirty air in Baku but was satisfied with both drivers’ performance after switching to the hard-compound tyres.
“We knew that on the soft, we would have struggled,” Binotto said. “I think, as a matter of fact, we struggled the most with the soft. However, on the hard tyres, when in free air, and I think Carlos in free air pace was representative, we were competitive.
“Certainly we still need to improve our pace in the race, no doubt. But I don’t think that overall, we were poor in performance when in free air. We were suffering in the dirty air, which both drivers mentioned, and that’s where we need to focus our analysis.”
