"We are not competitive enough"- Ferrari boss shares what's making the team's life more difficult in F1

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has shared his concerns about the car losing out in the race trim to its competitors. It was on the evidence at Zandvoort where despite finishing respectably, Ferrari were clearly the third fastest car in the race trim. The Mercedes drivers had better race pace than Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz at Zandvoort. That was the reason why Charles Leclerc fell out of contention for the race win.

When questioned by the media about what was the biggest worry for the team at this stage, Mattia Binotto pointed to a drop in race performance as one of the concerns. He said,

“It’s three races in a row that we don’t have the pace on Sunday and I think [Zandvoort] was quite a parallel to Hungary. This weekend, we had a good qualifying and we are being competitive. But then in the race, we are not competitive enough. And that makes life a lot more difficult, not only because we cannot fight for the win with Max but because then we do not have the pace to keep Mercedes behind."

He further added that,

“It’s now three races where we have not produced what should be our potential and what we have proved to have as the potential of the car since the start of the season. And that’s something that we need to address as soon as possible, because there are a few races left."

When asked what Ferrari's target is for the rest of the season, Binotto said that the team was focussing on winning races and trying to produce the best possible result at Monza for Tifosi. He said,

“We still are looking for victories and our intention is to try to win every race, and that includes Monza. We need to react and Monza with our tifosi there after COVID will be important for us, because they will certainly cheer for us and boost us as a team which right now we need.”

Ferrari still mystified by the drop in performance in recent races

In what was a slightly worrying revelation from the Ferrari team boss, he revealed that the team was still unsure why there was a drop in performance. He admitted that he did not have the answer to it yet and the team was working on it. He said,

“Honestly, I don’t know. I think it’s something which we need to look at reviewing. Is it the car itself which is not fast enough? Is it the car balance which is more difficult and tricky? It may be on the single lap you can run fast but then in a race you lose confidence and you do not have the right feeling in the car."

This weekend is Ferrari's home race at Monza and the team will be hoping to secure a win for the fans.