05/09/2022
NEWS STORY
Having previously defended his team's strategy, Mattia Binotto finally admits that Ferrari is its own worst enemy as it continues to shoot itself in the foot.
Only a week ago, following yet another bad call, Carlos Sainz insisted that the media focusses on when Ferrari gets things wrong, never on when it gets it right.
"For me, it's all about continuous improvement and continuous finding ways to make the right calls at the right time," said the Spaniard in the aftermath of the Belgian Grand Prix, where a poor call cost teammate Charles Leclerc the chance of fifth.
"There's been a lot of times during the year where we've done the right calls and no one has come to us to say; 'Oh you did the right call' or congratulate us for that. On the other hand, when there's been two or three, let's say call them bad calls, with hindsight, there's been massive criticism about it. I find that a bit tougher in Ferrari.
"I feel like when I was in McLaren or in Toro Rosso or in Renault, when there was a big mistake, no one would come and point it out and criticise you and put you down as much as they do in Ferrari."
Seven days later, after what team boss, Binotto and Sainz described as "a mess", the Spaniard, who went into the race at 10/1 to win at in2bet, wasn't quite so defensive of his team.
Pitting from fourth on lap 14, the Spaniard rejoined the race in 11th after his team didn't have a left-rear ready. Though he made his way back through the field, eventually passing Sergio Perez for fifth, at his final stop he was unsafely released into the path of Fernando Alonso, earning a time penalty that dropped him to 8th.
"It was a mess," he said, "the whole race in trouble, first with the confusing pit stop that we had and the yellow flag in which I saved myself by very small margins, and then the unsafe release.
"It was clearly maybe a bit too late," he said of his original stop, "but we need to keep analysing these cases, keep improving as a team, because we keep costing ourselves some points and we need to see why.
"We need to keep improving these sorts of things, especially for next year because it definitely looks like Max and Red Bull are pulling away now.
"We want to have a shot at next year, we need to keep improving these things and make the mistakes this year to get them better."
Asked where his team needs to improve, Sainz was in no doubt.
"It's race pace where we're missing? I'm not happy with how the car felt in the race, it was super tricky to drive, we were always fighting the rear a lot... a lot of overheating.
"We need to find out why the car isn't as strong in the race as it is in qualifying."
"We knew that Lewis was preparing himself for the pit stop," said Binotto of the 'missing' tyre fiasco, "and could have undercut ourselves... we saw the pit crew of Mercedes being out in the pit lane.
"At that time we knew he would have stopped so we tried to react simply to stay ahead of him, which was the best way to keep track position because we knew as well Lewis was very fast in the first stint of the race.
"So when we saw the pit crew of Mercedes, we called our driver to pit, but that was when he was in the last corner and too late for mechanics to be ready. So it has been too late, as a call.
"In our race preparation we normally know by when is the last time and the last call for mechanics, but it was past the track position," he admitted. "So it was a too late call as well, based on our judgement prior to the race."
Of the penalty handed to Sainz for the unsafe release however, Binotto believes the stewards were overly harsh.
"The decision of FIA, of the stewards, have been very, very harsh," said the Italian. "The reason is, when he came in, McLaren was passing through and we handled Carlos in the pit position because we knew it would have been unsafe to release at the time.
"We waited to have the right space and believe that the space was there with the Alpine coming. So that's why we released him," he continued. "What happened after is that he has to slow down, almost to stop because the pit crew of McLaren was going around the car, and in order to be safe with the mechanics you almost stop, having as well an anti-stall coming in, losing time.
"Then it was somehow late, but the release itself was not unsafe, the release was safe, the way that Carlos acted was safe. That's why it seems that the overall decision was harsh."
"That wasn't an unsafe release," said Sainz of the incident. "I was launched into the pit lane correctly but the problem is that I had to brake to not take a McLaren guy out of his life.
"Because I took avoiding action, they give you a penalty. I find this very frustrating and I'm going to speak with the FIA now because I don't understand it."
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