When the Ferrari SF21 launched in late February, Mattia Binotto insisted Ferrari would improve on its disastrous 2020 campaign. The team boss made no promises of victory or title – that was simply never possible with the car carry-over requirements imposed on the teams as a cost-saving measure in the pandemic – but he vowed to move forward again. And Ferrari definitely did.
At the beginning of summer, the shoots of recovery were clearly visible. Ferrari had taken two shock pole positions and while it was never about victory, mainly because Charles Leclerc couldn’t start his home race in Monaco from the front, that was still far better than anything the SF1000 could achieve in pure pace . And by almost every other statistic, Ferrari’s current challenger made the 2021 season better than the sad season the red team went through last year.
