Ferrari heads into the new Formula 1 season as “outsiders” despite a “positive” start in testing, team boss Mattia Binotto claims.
The Scuderia was widely tipped to be at the front of the grid in 2022, and so far, the signs appear to back that up as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ran competitively and consistently in pre-season.
Indeed, reflecting on the two tests in Barcelona and Bahrain, Binotto was more than pleased.
“Overall, it has been six good days of testing,” he said.
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“Clean, making a lot of mileage, running reliably, I think getting a lot of data which was very important to the start to the season, understanding the car, correlating it with back at Maranello, all the tools, the simulators, the wind tunnel, I think it has been positive in that respect.
“So after six days, we know pretty much our car. We know it’s certainly better. There is still much to come but positive, I would say.”
Even so, while Ferrari’s rivals are quick to talk up the Italian team’s performance, the Swiss team boss is keen to keep expectations in check.
“We are not the favourites,” he stated.
Sakhir test ends: the F1-75 goes into the season with 3.941 kilometres to its name
➡️ https://t.co/6L6RRfjYXe#essereFerrari ? #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/Zkn5h9o9gX— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 12, 2022
“I think the favourites are the teams that were the best last year because they are strong teams, they have proved they can be very fast, they’ve got a fantastic team.
“On-track I think they are showing that they are very, very fast. So I think if they are [favourites], we are outsiders.
“It’s true that we have a good start of testing and a good start of the season. But becoming favourites – I think we need first to have good races.”
By the end of the final test day on Saturday, reigning champion Max Verstappen, 0.7s faster than Ferrari driver Leclerc in third, albeit on softer tyres.
In contrast, Mercedes appear to be struggling with Lewis Hamilton ruling out competing for wins at this stage of the year.
“I think both Red Bull and Mercedes have very strong and fast cars,” Binotto responded. “Those teams are very strong as well.
“I can see that even on the last day Red Bull have brought updates to their car, so improving and showing how good they are in developing. I’m pretty sure from now through to the first race, maybe Mercedes as well will improve.
“So they are very strong and very fast. I hope that we can be outsiders, I hope that we can somehow try to challenge them, that would be great from our side.”