Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto “never doubted” the team would achieve success again after an impressive win at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc claimed pole and the win in Sakhir, holding off Max Verstappen until the Dutchman and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez both retired late on with fuel pump problems.
Their downfall also promoted Carlos Sainz up to P2, making it the perfect start to Formula 1’s new era for the Scuderia.
“It’s a great team result,” Binotto told Sky Italia. “I’m super-happy for the team.
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“Personally, I’ve never doubted this team – maybe someone did. I know this team is strong and they proved that they worked all together.
“The team became even closer after the issues faced in 2020. They made everything to improve and arrive prepared here. This is the best result we could have hoped for.
“It’s nice to arrive at a race and know we can fight to achieve the best result.”
Unsurprisingly, beating Red Bull and Mercedes on pure pace has immediately raised hopes Ferrari could end their lengthy championship drought, dating back to the 2008 Constructors’ title.
“I think that the others are very, very strong,” Binotto told The Race in response. “They have proved to be very strong in qualifying. It was really a matter of details.
Perfect race-craft, lap after lap ?
The new era is just getting started…#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/BEb9shBRI4
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 21, 2022
“I think today it could have been so good, but maybe they had some reliability issues or something that is not perfect on their car and they would have been very fast otherwise.
“If I look at the first stint of Max, on used tyres, he was keeping the pace of Charles, so I think we should not forget this was one of the world champions. They are still the favourites.
“What we can try to do is our best. Jeddah can be a completely different picture and I think we need to wait for at least four or five races before assessing [our championship chances].
“To answer your question, I would wait for four or five races.”