“More points than Red Bull and Mercedes combined!” – Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is confident his team can return to the top after more than a decade.
Ferrari last won a title in 2007, a painful 14 years without tasting victory for only the most successful outfit in the sport. To make things worse, the Scuderia finished P6 in 2020, their worst in four decades.
But things have changed dramatically since then, with a strong P3 last season, beating traditional arch-rivals McLaren, and only behind Mercedes and Red Bull.
And this time, they are doing two better, scoring more points than the two teams combined, albeit with just two races done. No wonder boss Mattia Binotto is delighted with how things have fallen in place for Ferrari this season.
“I can say in summary we have collected 78 points out of 88 available – we have scored more points than Red Bull and Mercedes combined! I think we did well proving we are always competitive.
“The credit goes to a team that in three long weeks (we left for testing in Bahrain, then we stayed in Sakhir for the race and then moved to Jeddah) did a very solid job – the car worked, but also the pit-stops, the mechanics.
“In short, the strategies and engineering were of a high level. So I am very satisfied because we have collected so much, beyond all expectations.”
Red Bull recovered from Bahrain DNFs to win in Saudi Arabia
Ferrari is not going to have it easy at all, considering things would have been so much tighter had the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez not suffered car failures in Bahrain.
Add to their apparent superiority when it comes to aerodynamics, and Binotto feels the title race could go down to the fire, yet again.
“Honestly, I think they are different situations because I believe there are different choices in the Red Bull wing configurations, so it seems clear to me it was an aerodynamic issue.
“It’s true they have a very high speed and maybe we are also looking to see if they have any aero-elasticity in their wings, but these are the usual analyses we do.”
