Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow’s team principal Mattia Binotto says the disappointing result in Portugal has cost the team in their battle for the third position in the Constructors’ Championship after Carlos Sainz Jr failed to finish in the top ten.
The Italian manufacturer was showing the potential of another successful weekend across the three practice sessions and qualifying. Sainz started in fifth and out-qualified his team-mate for the first time this season, while Charles Leclerc was eighth on the grid.
However, both cars struggled on Sunday despite Leclerc managing to finish sixth and record valuable points. The newly-recruited Sainz dropped out of the points and finished eleventh, losing ground on McLaren F1 Team, who had both drivers in the top ten.
Binotto said the team failed to capitalise on a good qualifying session and dropped costly points in the constructor championship:
“Today’s result was not what we were expecting. We were unable to capitalise on the potential seen in qualifying and that cost us a lot of points in the Constructors’ classification.
“Charles drove a very solid race, making up some of the ground lost yesterday. Carlos had a difficult race, especially in the second stint.”
Ferrari remains fourth in the constructor championship, despite picking up just eight points in Portugal. Yet, they have lost further ground on McLaren in third, who accumulated twelve points and extended the gap to eleven points.
Thankfully, the team won’t have to wait too long to make amends with F1 travelling to Barcelona this weekend for Spanish Grand Prix.
“In just a few days, we are back in action in Spain.” Binotto added. “On a very demanding track like the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, we will need to be prepared down to the smallest detail to make the most of our potential throughout the weekend.”
