“Today we feel it is not any more a disadvantage”- Mattia Binotto reveals Ferrari’s huge upgrade in pace while running on the straight-lines.
Ferrari lost major battles when running on straight against its rivals in 2020, and it became a matter of frustration for both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel.
Mattia Binotto earlier said that Ferrari had gained massive pace on straights. Now, he has given further insight into this improvement, and he finally doesn’t consider running on straight a disadvantage for Ferrari.
“We know how the engine is running at the dyno, [but] when you fit it on the car, what you may have a look on-track is the speed, and eventually the relative speed to the others,” Binotto said when asked by Autosport about Ferrari’s engine gains.
“When we were here last year in Bahrain for the race in qualy, we’ve been very slow here on the straights. We didn’t enter into Q3, and we were very distant from the pole.”
“Now, if I look at the data, I think at least on the speed, on the straight, the speed is alright. There does not seem to be such a disadvantage as it was last year.”
“We know it’s not only power, but it’s also the drag of the car as well, as we often said last year. But let me say that both [drivers] contributed to improving our speed on the straights. Today we feel it is not any more a disadvantage.”
Adjustments to the new regulations
While Charles Leclerc and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen assured promising signs from Ferrari’s power unit, Binotto also talked about Ferrari improving the rear-end to adjust with the regulations.
“We tried to develop as much as we could the back of the car,” Binotto said. “I think what was more important for us is to understand the correlation with the wind tunnel and the simulations, so gathering data and comparing.
“We’re pretty happy with the correlation, which means we’ve got a good baseline at least for the next simulations or eventually developments. The correlation was a key factor in those days. So far, at least, it’s looking pretty well.”
