Camila Sosa
Ferrari director Mattia Binotto believes his team is much better off compared to the 2018 Formula 1 season where it failed to win the World Championship.
In the 2018 season, Ferrari had two experienced drivers in its seats, German Sebastian Vettel and Finnish Kimi Raikkonen, and they fought toe-to-toe with Mercedes Benz, which had Englishman Lewis Hamilton and Finnish Valtteri Bottas. Despite his efforts, Vettel finished second in the season, behind Hamilton, and Mercedes overtook Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship by a difference of 84 points.
In this season, however, after two races of the calendar have been run, Ferrari leads the Constructors’ Championship, after achieving double podium finishes in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
This shows that the difficult seasons of the Maranello team have been worthwhile because it has allowed them to correct the mistakes and this is reflected this season so far by returning to the top as a competitive team.
Likewise, Binotto spoke about this situation and said that the team is in a better place than four years ago: “I think that keeping up the level of development through a season is always a challenge not only for us, but for all the teams, but it’s true that our competitors are very strong in that, and they proved to be very strong while as Ferrari, with the last two opportunities we had in ’17 and ’18, we lost a bit of ground for development.”
Ferrari’s More than Confident on their Preparation for the Season
Binotto believes that this time they have better tools and this allows them to be better prepared than in the past: “I think for car design, we have improved our tools, which are wind tunnel methodologies, processes and the simulator. And I think as of today, we are much better prepared compared to the past to do the proper job as well in development.”
The Ferrari director acknowledged that they must keep in mind the budget cap, which will drive teams to make the right upgrades to get to the end of the 2022 season.
“Compared to that time, today we’ve got as well a budget [cap], which will influence the rate of development and I think that is a key point, a key element.”
However, he went on to say, “My concern is that we need to make sure that we’ve got the right policing on that because it can be a game changer in the fight for developments.”
Binotto is well-aware of the budget cap and doesn’t want to spend everything in the early part of the season: “I think it’s not only a matter of when we’ll be ready, but the matter – as I said before – of budget caps, to try to make sure that we’re not spending all that we got in the first races.”
Besides, he anticipated that there won’t be many changes for the Australian GP: “So, we are not expecting significant developments for the next race in Melbourne but as soon as we can bring something, we will do it anyhow.”
