Ferrari call out Lewis Hamilton’s false claims about Ferrari’s pace

Utkarsh Bhatla | 08/03/2019
Ferrari call out Lewis Hamilton's false claims about Ferrari's pace

Ferrari called the shots during testing in Barcelona, as the Maranello team was able to dish out a car that seemed to be superior to its immediate rival Mercedes.

Mercedes struggled with speed during the first week of testing, but with a new front wing concept for the second week, Mercedes managed to bridge the gap to Ferrari.

However, despite the improvement, Lewis Hamilton confirmed that Ferrari were close to 0.5 seconds ahead of Mercedes.

Binotto shoots down Lewis Hamilton’s claim

Addressing Lewis Hamilton’s claim, Ferrari team principal Binotto has said that he is happy to hear that Hamilton feels Ferrari’s car is fast, but has shot his claims down.

Binotto expects Mercedes to be as fast if not faster in Melbourne, come the first grand prix of the season.

“I’m happy to know that Hamilton believes we are faster, but I believe they are very strong,” Binotto said.

“I believe that Mercedes will be very, very strong in Australia, and I think it would be completely wrong to think we are faster than them.

“I’m not expecting them to be behind us. I think they will be very, very close.” he added.

Reliability issues for Ferrari

While Ferrari were faster than the pack in Barcelona, they were hit with a few reliability issues in the 2nd week, something that has put a slight doubt in the minds of Ferrari supporters.

“I think that we did a lot of work but I’m not pleased with where we are at the moment,”  Binotto explained.

“We would like to be faster and we would like to be more reliable. So there is still much to do.

“I’m pleased to think that the car performs as expected as the starting point, but I know as well there are many issues to be addressed and performance to be pushed forward.

“I will not be pleased today. Certainly the fact that the car is running properly is a good starting point, but that’s it.” he added.

Binotto however pointed out that Ferrari were not quite ready for Melbourne yet and needed to work out of their skins in the remaining days to get ready for the first GP.

“Our programme hasn’t always ran as we were hoping. I feel that we are not yet ready for Melbourne – I think most of the tasks are still to be done.” Binotto added.

Do you think Ferrari will be 0.5 seconds ahead of Mercedes come Australia?

Post Edited By: Utkarsh Bhatla
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Utkarsh Bhatla

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