Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto explained himself a lot at the end of the French GP, but despite the lost points, he was pleased to see that F1-75 is competitive
Once again, everything went wrong for Ferrari one weekend in the 2022 Formula 1 season. As if Charles Leclerc's mistake wasn't enough, which led him to abandon the race this Sunday (24), in Paul Ricard, the team didn't get along with Carlos Sainz - who, even though he started last and had to pay a 5s penalty, had an excellent race and fought for the podium, but finished only fifth.
In the end, Ferrari saw rival Red Bull further away in the standings: the Taurinos now have 396 points against the Maranello team's 314. But even if the title seems more and more distant, Mattia Binotto looked at the positive factors and is sure that in Hungary it will be very different.
"Things didn't go as planned, but I think we had a good performance with tire management compared to the wear of Red Bull's," the Ferrari boss assessed. "After 15 laps, Charles was gaining a few tenths over Max, but he stopped early. We would have extended the stint," he added, referring to the Monegasque's abandonment.
Leclerc himself exempted the team from blame, saying that the 25 points lost were on his account. But Binotto returned the kindness and reminded that Ferrari itself has had other problems in 2022 that were not the responsibility of the #16. "We lost points in various ways [breaks etc], it wasn't just today's mistake. Charles is a champion that no one will ever question. He is with the engineers, and we have a very competitive car."
"I told Charles, we made it difficult for ourselves, but I think we will enjoy it more in the future. It was a genuine driver error. When he tried to get out of the tire barrier, we had a strategy. Somehow, the throttle wasn't responding, but it had nothing to do with the mistake," Binotto continued.
With Leclerc out, Ferrari started counting on Sainz to score as many points as possible in France. But it ran into problems with its own strategy, calling the driver into the pits for a new change at the end when he had finally passed Sergio Pérez in the fight for third place.
Binotto assured that Ferrari's decision was the right one, since Sainz was on medium tires and would probably not reach the end of the race with the same set. "He had little life left [with the medium compounds] and it would be risky to go all the way to the end. We didn't think he would have the pace to open 5s. He had a 5s penalty to pay, and for stopping, he still did the fastest lap, which is a point, no doubt."
"There are things to improve and learn. Our approach is this, step by step, I think we are progressing and becoming better. We proved today with our drivers that we have a very fast and competitive car, and we are already looking ahead to Hungary. We can do the double there and focus on our next result," assured the Italian, saying that Ferrari goes to the races willing to challenge Red Bull. He added: "We can try to win every race from now on and challenge them.