Last weekend, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz took second and third place in the Dutch Grand Prix respectively, both less than a tenth behind poleman Max Verstappen.
However, despite what was expected, Leclerc and Sainz were unable to fight Verstappen during the race, in fact, they received pressure from Mercedes.
The Monegasque finished third behind George Russell, while a costly error at one of the pit stops and a penalty saw the Spaniard drop to eighth.
This means that Leclerc is now 109 points behind world leader Max Verstappen , while Ferrari now seem to have to worry more about Mercedes than winning the constructors’ title, a battle in which Red Bull has already built a huge lead.
Binotto acknowledged that “it really is a difficult moment” but encouraged his team to react at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, where he will receive the support of tens of thousands of tifosi.
“It’s really a difficult moment right now for our team, because we are not getting the results we expected,” acknowledged the Maranello director.
“We have to react and in Monza we will have the tifosi in the stands, that will be important for us as they cheer us on and push us as a team. Right now, we need to get some good results for spirit and morale,” he explained.
Although Spa was expected to be a difficult weekend for Ferrari due to the top speed of the Red Bulls , the Italian team hoped to fight back at Zandvoort, rather than find themselves outmatched by both the Austrians and Mercedes.
Binotto acknowledged that it was worrying how close they came to Verstappen in qualifying and how far a day later they were at Sunday’s race pace.
“My main concern is that it’s been three races in a row where we haven’t had a good pace on Sunday,” he explained. “It’s pretty similar to what happened in Hungary.”
“This weekend we have had a good qualifying, we have been competitive.”
“But in the race itself we’re not competitive enough, which obviously complicates everything; not only because we can’t fight for victory, but because we also don’t have the pace to stop the Mercedes from behind.”
“I think it’s been three races in a row where we haven’t lived up to what our potential should be. It’s something we have to fix as soon as possible, because there are a few races left until the end of the season.”
“We are still looking for victories and our intention is to win all the remaining races, including Monza,” said Mattia Binotto .
