While the Italian squad started the 2022 season as the team to beat, it eventually lost out to the almost-recovering Red Bull team, which has claimed both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship titles.
More recently, Mercedes has emerged as Red Bull’s main threat at some races, with Ferrari’s F1-75 particularly lacking performance last time out in Mexico.
This has come with Mercedes overcoming the early bouncing problems that plagued its W13, and being able to finally unlock the potential it knew was always in the car.
Mercedes’ progress points to the team being back in contention for wins next year, as it looks poised to switch some key concepts of its challenger. That could leave Ferrari facing another season of disappointment, having failed to capitalize on having the best package at the start of this year.
But Ferrari team principal Binotto thinks the current competitive picture between his outfit and Mercedes does not reflect the true situation for next year as Maranello switched off development of its 2022 car early to shift its focus to next year.
“Mercedes is coming back right as they have developed the car more than we did,” he said after Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished fifth and sixth in Mexico.
“We know as well ourselves that we stopped quite early the development of that car to focus on 2023. So I’m not too concerned by the rate of development because I know, as well, when we stopped developing it.”
Ferrari has not won a race since the Austrian Grand Prix in July, when Leclerc came through to beat Max Verstappen. Since then, Red Bull has won every grand prix.
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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG, 2nd position, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 3rd position, on the podium
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
While Ferrari has clearly been chasing better results than it was able to deliver, Binotto sees no need for concern about the situation.
“Certainly if I look at the last races it has not always been great, but in Singapore I think we have been very competitive,” he said.
“Japan was in the wet, and we were not as fast, but it was not a drama and certainly not in the quali.
“In the States, Austin, I think that in the quali we were competitive, but not as much as we would have expected in the race.
“[In Mexico] it’s a lot worse, but I don’t think it’s the same trend because Singapore competitive, Japan not too bad, USA good quali.
“But the duty is first to try to analyze what’s going on and what has been the main issues here in Mexico, and try to be back competitive for what is our level of competitiveness at least for the last two races, including Sao Paulo.
“So we certainly hope to be there and to fight for a better result.”
