The F1 podium is still a long way off despite the progress made at the Bahrain GP

After a disastrous 2020 season in which Ferrari dropped to sixth in the constructors’ championship, Charles Leclerc qualified for an impressive fourth place and finished sixth at the season opener.

Teammate Carlos Sainz also qualified in the top 10 and finished eighth in the race to give Ferrari its first colon since last year’s Turkish Grand Prix.

The encouraging start, however, doesn’t mean Ferrari is still capable of battling for a podium, according to Binotto.

“The gap is still very noticeable compared to the top competitors who were still big in the race. So it was still a long way to go, but it will also depend on track to track,” said Binotto when he came to Ferraris Podium opportunities was asked.

“We know we’re not going to do a lot of developing this car because we will be focusing on the 2022 in terms of design development. I’m pretty sure the other competitors will do the same.”

“But I still think that when we watch our race today we have got feedback from the drivers, they are learning the car, they know where the car’s limits are and maybe we will address it or improve it, so I do think the next three / four races will first show what the real performance and potential of our car is compared to the others. “

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A poorly performing engine was a big factor in Ferrari’s battles last year, but even while testing, the team felt they had made significant progress with the lack of straight-line speed.

Binotto admitted that it was a relief to confirm the engine’s progress during the first Grand Prix weekend, and believes that this gives the team a solid base that should help them work more calmly in order to keep moving forward recover.

“I am definitely relieved because we may be working in a better position and that is very healthy for the team,” added Binotto.

“It’s important that the team is working in a healthy state, staying calm and positive, and that was important to me.

“So if we come here and see that the car has made progress and the team is somehow relaxed, we can work better.

“Engine, chassis, tires, tools, correlation, all of that was important to us and basically that was the key.

“How much is improving the engine? I think it’s hard to say because it’s so relative to the competition. It’s not an absolute value and I don’t know the progress of the others, but we can only judge the whole package . “

Binotto said it was good news for the team that the car ran as Ferrari expected, compared to the data from the simulation in their factory.

“In terms of expectations about how to compare it to our simulation data, I think good correlations were important to us,” he said.

“It’s something we developed last year to improve it compared to where we were based. So the car is working as expected. I think we have some ideas starting with testing the winter test these three days.

“We knew that we had a better car compared to the competition than last year.”