"Some teams are sandbagging more than others" - Ferrari 'surprised' at performance similarities after Barcelona tests

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto revealed that some teams were sandbagging more extensively than the rest of the field during the pre-season test in Barcelona. The Maranello team boss was surprised by similar performance levels from the diverse car designs on the F1 grid.

Reporting that some teams are sandbagging more than others, Binotto spoke to Sky Italia and said:

“For judging the performance is too early, I think. Some teams are sandbagging more than others. We will see that with the tests in Bahrain and with the first races.”

The Italian believes some teams were masking their performance potential deliberately compared to the rest of the field. He also called it too early to judge performances across the grid as a result.

Describing Ferrari's plans for the season, Binotto said:

“At the beginning of the season, we will try to exploit all the potential of the car, that’s the first upgrade. We will do some small changes, but nothing drastic. So we will focus, at the beginning of the season, mostly on drawing out all the potential from the current car.”

While the Italian suggests that there will only be minor changes, one can expect a completely different or more developed version of the F1-75 by the race in Bahrain.

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Ferrari surprised by performance similarity in cars

The Ferrari boss admitted he was surprised by the similarities in performances from all the cars despite the diversity in the design concepts across the field. Binotto expected the difference in concepts to have translated on to the track. Instead, teams were able to come together in terms of performance despite their dissimilarities.

Expressing his amazement at the likeness of the cars, he said:

“What surprised me is seeing all very different cars and despite that quite similar in terms of performance. When you see different conceptual choices, you expect to see that translated on track too with a performance difference. Instead, I think the cars will converge with the performance even if they are very different in the forms.”

The Maranello-based outfit had a successful test with its F1-75, enabled by its drivers racking up the highest mileage of the outing with a total of 437 laps. The Scarlet team's mileage and lap-times translate into an indicator of its reliability and a competitive engine respectively for the season ahead.