Ferrari came into the Monaco weekend as a dark horse for the podium after impressing in the slow third sector of Barcelona, which is often a good indication of the Monaco pace.
But the Scuderia exceeded their wildest expectations by setting the pace in the streets of the principality. Charles Leclerc took pole, while his later crash in Q3 prevented his team-mate Carlos Sainz from getting anywhere near Leclerc’s benchmark and was content with fourth on the grid.
While Leclerc failed the race with a driveshaft problem, an undiscovered remnant of his qualifying crash, Sainz finished second behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, achieving Ferrari’s first podium in 2021 and the best result since Leclerc’s second place at the 2020 season opener in Austria .
Ferrari’s slow cornering ability could potentially give him several more opportunities to finish on the podium in 2021, particularly in Hungary and Singapore.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
But team boss Binotto said Monaco repetition was “not a given” and preferred to focus on getting more performance from the SF1000 on all types of tracks, starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next week.
“I think there will be tracks with slow corners on which we might be competitive again, but that is not something that can be taken for granted,” said Binotto.
“Instead of thinking about which track will be competitive again, we are already focusing on Baku, the next, and then we will focus on the following because there is still room to make better use of the car.
“I think we have shown that we are preparing well for the race weekend, we can at least use the best potential of the car ourselves. There will be some developments, not much, but they are still to come and it is important that they work properly.” . “
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Downplaying Ferrari’s potential to snatch more podiums from Mercedes and Red Bull, Sainz pointed out that Monaco’s unique character is not replicated on other circuits.
When asked when he will be able to fight for podiums again, Sainz replied, “I think it’s a pretty simple answer: just look at the characteristics of the Monaco circuit and then try to find which one comes closest to it They don’t many, and you won’t find that even the circuits you think of are the same.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to fight for pole or a podium, [with] Mercedes and Red Bull. I think they still have an advantage over us and it will be very difficult to fight for pole position and victory.
“That’s why it’s a bit difficult to swallow this weekend because you don’t know when the next chance will come, but we have to be proud of the step we took and how competitive the car was.” this weekend.
“It’s not easy to be quick in Monaco and that Charles and I were so quick is also thanks to the team’s good performance and how everything went that weekend.”
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