Verstappen’s second win in a row following his triumph at Imola seems to indicate that recent developments on the car have put Red Bull ahead.
But while Ferrari’s early season advantage has been erased by its decision not to introduce any major updates so far, the Italian outfit still believes it will be a long-term battle.
All teams are constrained by F1’s €122m budget ceiling this year, and Ferrari believes Red Bull’s aggressive early spending will mean it will pay the price later when its development budget runs out.
Speaking after the Miami Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said the change in performance between his team and Red Bull could be explained by the extensive upgrades his rival brought to Imola.
But he felt there was no way Red Bull could keep up its pace of development without breaking the spending limit at the end of the year.
“It is true that Red Bull have improved their car since the beginning of the season and they have introduced updates,” Binotto explained.
“If I look at the last two races, maybe they were a couple of tenths a lap quicker than us.
“And I have no doubt that in order to keep pace, we need to develop and introduce updates.”
“But I hope, because there is also a budget cap, that at some point Red Bull will stop development: otherwise I won’t understand how they can do it.
Ferrari plans to introduce its first major package of upgrades to the F1-75 for the Spanish Grand Prix, and Binotto is under no illusions that what they will wear in Barcelona will put the Cavallino back in front.
“In the next few races it will at least be our turn to try to develop as much as we can into the car, making improvements,” he said.
“I think it is not a surprise that we can have a package in Barcelona that will be important for us.”
“As always, I hope that the package that we are going to introduce works as expected, and in that case it can be good to try to recover the current gap that we have compared to Red Bull.
Having waited five races before presenting its first developments, Ferrari seems to be being very selective with its plan for new parts for the car.
Binotto says that the financial restrictions that have been imposed in a bid to stay under the budget cap means they have to be sparse with their upgrades this year.
“We don’t have the money to spend on improvements every race,” he lamented. “I think it’s as simple as that.”
“Not because of inability, but because of the budget ceiling. So somehow we have to try to approach development when we think it’s the right time and the right spending.”
When asked what the plan of attack would be for the remainder of the course, Binotto concluded: “We will not declare what we will do.”
