Ferrari battled its way through the worst F1 season in 40 years in 2020 when it dropped to sixth in the constructors’ championship and only got three podiums.
The team has been hampered by a lack of straight-line speed and a sluggish car concept that the updated SF21 car was supposed to fix for this year.
The results so far have been positive: Charles Leclerc qualified fourth for each of the first two races. Leclerc finished fourth at Imola two weeks ago, leading teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in fifth.
It put Ferrari at the forefront of the midfield battle, with McLaren from head to toe, and showed that the team is back on the rise after last year’s battles.
Team Principal Binotto admitted it was a relief to see that the team’s development work correlated between the factory and the track and helped steer performance in the right direction.
“I think the relief is to see that we are moving in the right directions,” said Binotto.
“It’s important to see these simulations [and work in the] The wind tunnel now correlates better on the track than before.
“That gives confidence in the tools and our design capacity for the future. That was the most important thing in my opinion [thing] and I think it’s a relief in that regard.
“Of course it is important that the car performs better so that we can achieve a better result at the end of the race weekend.
“We have often said that our performance last year was not acceptable for a Ferrari brand. That is why we knew that these areas are important to us and show developments in all areas.
“So again, I think the performance is certainly a relief.”
Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21, Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
McLaren is currently seven points ahead of Ferrari in the team standings thanks to Lando Norris’ podium finish at Imola, which passed Leclerc on the restart after the red flag.
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Binotto said that while it would be a close battle with McLaren all year round, the bigger goal for Ferrari is to make further progress in all areas.
“I’m already happy with what we’ve done with the progress, but I think it will be a close battle with McLaren for third place,” said Binotto.
“Is that our season goal now? I think our goal, as I have said many times, is still to prove that we can make progress in all areas.
“I think we can do it. It’s really a mentality issue and I think we’ll see the result in the end.
“In the end, it is important for me to show that we are able to make progress and we have a good starting point for that.”
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