After another excellent qualifying for Scuderia Ferrari, team principal and managing director, Mattia Binotto, believes the team is in a good place for Sunday’s race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, where they will start in second and third place.
Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia was a much longer session as a result of a red flag in Qualifying 2, caused by a scary accident involving Mick Schumacher; and the wellbeing of the young Haas F1 Team driver was the first thing on Binotto’s mind,“The most important thing today is that Mick is okay after his terrible accident.“
“As for qualifying, our gap to pole is really small, a few thousandths, so I think being fastest was within reach today, but never mind, because starting second and third is still a great result and even more important is the fact we are competitive. We proved to be quick on a track with different characteristics to the previous ones, which is what we wanted to see.“
The Swiss-Italian believes a victory at Jeddah will not come easily, and the pit wall will need an error-free race in order to win – “Everything could happen in tomorrow’s race – safety cars, red flags – therefore it will be important not to make any mistakes on the pit wall and to try and make the most of every opportunity and react quickly to whatever situations arise. To sum up, we need to be quick to react, keep on our toes and concentrate.”
The top four – two Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing cars – are separated by just over four-and-a-half tenths, suggesting either team is in contention to take victory in Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening.
