F1 | Binotto says Ferrari are better prepared to fight for the World championship compared to 2017 and 2018
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is of the opinion that Ferrari is better prepared to fight for the World championship compared to when they fought Mercedes in 2017-18. Binotto also praised the performances of Charles Leclerc ,who he says can now fight for his maiden Formula 1 World championship.
Mattia Binotto has expressed his belief that Ferrari is better prepared to fight for the World championship than they were in 2017 and 2018.
After two years in the wilderness, Ferrari opened their 2022 account in style with a 1-2 in Bahrain, with Charles Leclerc leading home Carlos Sainz to send the Tifosi into raptures. Ferrari followed up their perfect start to the season with a 2-3 in Jeddah after Leclerc duelled for victory with old karting rival Max Verstappen, who just came out the victor despite Leclerc’s clever dummy move, which put some space between him and the Dutchman.
Leclerc and Sainz’s excellent start to the season means that Ferrari lead the constructors and the drivers’ championships going into Australia, with Leclerc marginally ahead of Sainz in the drivers’ standings.
The excellent start to the campaign has given Binotto the belief that Leclerc is perfectly capable of winning his maiden World Championship.
“I think he is, but it’s something which I was expecting when renewing as well with him in the last year for up to 2024 because we know what he’s capable of.”
“I think he is simply demonstrating that he’s capable of fighting for the championship. No doubt he’s got the talent, he’s got the capacity, he is a very good racer, and we’re very happy with what he’s proving in these two races.”
Binotto also said that a repeat of the 2017-18 seasons where Ferrari took the fight to Mercedes in the first half of the season only for them to fade in the second half of the season is unlikely to happen again after the team heavily upgraded its wind tunnel and simulator.
“It is true that our competitors are very strong in that and proved to be very strong, while as Ferrari the last two opportunities we had (in) 2017 and 2018 we lost a bit of ground through development. Since then, as for the car design, we have improved our tools, which are wind tunnel, methodologies, process and simulator.”
“I think today we are much better prepared compared to the past to do the proper job as well in development. We need as well to add compared to the time today, we have (a) budget cap which will influence the rate of development, and I think that’s a key point and a key element.”
