“We have improved since France” – Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is happy with the progress the team has made with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz this season.
Ferrari had a disastrous 2020 campaign, finishing 6th in their worst performance in four decades. This season, though, they have shown sizeable improvement, and already have 17 points more than they did from the entire last season.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are forming a credible partnership that could serve them well for many more years to come. Leclerc has been in great nick, especially, grabbing a podium at Silverstone last weekend.
Mattia Binotto is a happy man
This upturn in form for Ferrari has pleased team boss Mattia Binotto. He did admit the performances this season haven’t been too consistent, but good enough to give McLaren a strong fight in the battle to be the ‘best of the rest’ after Mercedes and Red Bull.
“If you look at Austria as a comparison, [Lando] Norris had been on the podium doing a fantastic race but his race pace was very similar to ours and we were simply stuck in the traffic.
“I think being ahead in front on the quail in the start of the race is key to have the right pace in the race itself. So here I think it is the opposite because [Leclerc] has been ahead, in front, and we somehow have done our own pace.
“If you compare our two drivers, one of them has been stuck behind and may not have a very good pace but when Carlos [Sainz] was in free air he was in a similar pace to Charles.
“I think that’s our pace, still Lewis [Hamilton] and Max [Verstappen] have better speed and something needs to happen to have the opportunity to be where Charles was, but we have improved since France and that is important.”
