Mattia Binotto has stated that despite Scuderia Ferrari achieving a podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix, the team still “cannot be satisfied” with their showing out on track in Zandvoort. With both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. starting second and third on the grid, Ferrari would have been hopeful of a strong result for both the FIA Formula 1 World Championship Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship but yet leave Zandvoort with just nineteen points.
Leclerc was able to maintain second place in the race until the end of his second stint, but the threat of both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team cars always loomed large throughout. After pitting for the second time in the race, he found himself in fourth place and twenty seconds behind both Mercedes’ drivers who looked set for a one-stop race.
The late safety car provided the Ferrari pit wall with a chance to pit the Monegasque driver for the soft tyres and in doing so it gave the team the chance to fight for a late podium finish. With Lewis Hamilton opting to stay out during the safety car, Leclerc, on his new soft tyres, was able to pass the seven-time world champion with just seven laps to go to secure a podium finish.
Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
For Sainz, fortune appeared to not be on the Spaniard’s side today as a number of mishaps from his Ferrari team cost him any chance of finishing inside the top five today.
During Sainz’s first pit stop, the pit crew took twelve seconds in completing the service of his F1-75 after the crew were late in delivering the left rear tyre to the pit box. With the safety car out, the Ferrari pit wall also elected to bring Sainz in for a new set of soft tyres but after an unsafe release into the path of Fernando Alonso, Sainz would be handed a five-second time penalty.
Sainz was able to valiantly fend off Sergio Perez in the latter stages to cross the line in fifth place but with the five-second time penalty enforced, Sainz would officially finish in eighth place.
On his team’s performance today, Binotto stated that they were unable to execute the full potential of the F1-75 in race trim today.
“We cannot be satisfied with our race today. After performing well in qualifying, the car did not have the pace to win and unfortunately, that’s not the first time in recent races. We have to analyse everything in great detail because the difference in performance between qualifying and the race demonstrates that we did not manage to exploit all the potential in the car.
With another weekend behind the team where they are reflecting on what could have been, Binotto was already turning his focus to the biggest weekend on the calendar for Ferrari, the Italian Grand Prix, where Binotto is expecting a warm welcome from the Tifosi.
“Now we go to Monza where we can expect a warm welcome from our Tifosi. We know we can always count on their support and it will be great to finally see the grandstands at the Autodromo packed out, after the limitation on spectator numbers last year because of Covid. We will do our utmost to make our supporters proud of us, even if we already know it won’t be an easy race, given the performance level of our competitors.”