“Our main target for 2021 was not third place”

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Even if Ferrari has done much better in the battle for space this Formula 1 season than last year, team boss Mattia Binotto asserts that when developing the 2022 Formula 1 car, “nothing”. “made.

“We never developed the current car,” said the Ferrari team boss. “We made some developments at the start of the season and that’s it.”

The Maranello team fought for a full season with McLaren for third place in the constructors’ championship, but have recently been able to differentiate themselves from their British rivals, thanks mainly to the results in the last three races.

With only two big rings left, Ferrari has a 39.5-point lead over McLaren after the Woking team in Mexico, Brazil and Qatar scored just four points.

But despite the progress made by Ferrari, which finished sixth last year with less than half the points scored in 2021, Binotto insists the focus has been on developing the car for 2022 in preparation for the introduction of the new regulations.

Even the new power unit, which Ferrari introduced later in the season, was a development with a goal for 2022. “So all our efforts were focused on the car for 2022 from the start. We never gave up on that.”

The fight for Ferrari’s P3 is somewhat secondary

Therefore, at no time did it occur to us to try to deny 2022 in favor of 2021.” Not even with the aim of the battle for third place.

“We knew already at the start of the season that we were going to be fighting for third place. We knew it could have been very close, but our main target for 2021 wasn’t third. We wanted to try to be a team in all that they had to improve on the details, and third place was Just a consequence.”

Therefore, if Ferrari finished third in the world championship, it is because, according to Binotto, “the team, the way it works on different weekends, has improved a lot since the start of the season, and not because the car itself has improved”.

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Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have always been able to score strong goals lately Zoom

Binotto believes several factors outside the car and engines have helped Ferrari perform better this season. “I think the racing team has made great strides since the start of the season,” he says.

“You’ve made great strides in terms of strategy, the way we run the weekend, communicating with the drivers and understanding what we’re doing. Tire management has also improved a lot.”

Binotto: Constant improvement since Paul Ricard

A lot has happened, especially after the liquidation in France: “Since Paul Ricard, the team has developed a lot of small tools and techniques to do a better job. I think the team is making progress overall, which is great, especially in ‘in terms of’ what we plan to do in 2022. .”

“When I look at where we were last year, sixth, with a few points in the championship,” Binotto paints the comparison, “we did our best with the current regulations and this year’s car with the very limited possibilities. Development was possible.”

So the Ferrari team boss comes to a positive conclusion and says: “I am very happy with that, because third place is a great result of our efforts.”