Binotto’s look back at the season so far: We could have won eight races

After two seasons without a win, Ferrari is back in the fight for the top positions. It has won four of the opening thirteen races. But team boss Mattia Binotto knows they could have won more races.

The Maranello stable has started the season better than expected. They finished first and second in Bahrain. After the race in Australia, Ferrari were clear favourites for the title, with Leclerc 34 points ahead of second-placed George Russell in the championship standings.

Who, on the other hand, was struggling was Red Bull. In Bahrain, both monoblocs failed to finish the race due to technical issues in the final stages of the race. The technical problems continued in Australia. Max Verstappen retired from the race on lap 39 with a smoking car.

The Dutchman was greatly frustrated by the situation. He knew he had a very fast car at his disposal, however, he also won convincingly in Saudi Arabia. But the unreliability of the car prevented him from gaining points.

But after the Australian GP, everything changed. Verstappen won seven of the next ten races. The other three wins were shared between Sergio Pérez, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Technical problems began to affect Ferrari more. Leclerc retired from the race lead three times, twice for technical reasons (VC of Spain and VC of Azerbaijan) and once after a driver error when he spun into the barriers in France.

Bad luck also accompanied Sainz. He didn’t even take the first lap out of the Imola race, ending up in a duck after an uncaused collision. Like his teammate, he withdrew for technical reasons in Azerbaijan and failed to finish the race at the Red Bull Ring due to a burning engine.

Ferrari is currently 97 points behind Red Bull. And their hopes of winning the Constructors’ Cup are fading.

Binotto’s statement

The fifty-two-year-old Italian blames a combination of car unreliability, driving errors and a failed strategy for his team’s failure. Binotto’s interview with Auto Motor und Sport was quoted by North Racing News 365.

“We have won four of the thirteen races so far. If it wasn’t for our probems, it could have been eight. Of course, Red Bull also had reliability problems, but unlike us, they never hit them when they were leading the race.”

Binotto admitted that the SF-75’s unreliability was due to new engine components, which Ferrari is using to try to make up for the loss on the straights.

“We’re paying the price for a huge leap in the development of the car. We have a lot more new parts than Red Bull, we needed to catch up.”

Source: Racing News 365