Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Bahrain International Circuit, 2022

Ferrari are outsiders, not favourites, behind Mercedes and Red Bull – Binotto

2022 F1 season

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Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is pleased with their progress in testing but believes Mercedes and Red Bull remain the favourites heading into the new season.

“We are not the favourites,” he said, “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 season. But becoming favourites – I think we need first to have good races.”

Binotto said the two teams who led the way in 2021 will be the ones to beat this year, despite the radical change in technical regulations during the off-season.

“I think both Red Bull and Mercedes have very strong and fast cars,” he said. “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.”

However Binotto declared himself satisfied with Ferrari’s progress over the two tests in Bahrain and Spain.

“Overall it has been six good days of testing,” he said. “Clean, making a lot of mileage, running reliable, 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.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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3 comments on “Ferrari are outsiders, not favourites, behind Mercedes and Red Bull – Binotto”

  1. We’ll have to see how the car matches up to the other front runners, although I suspect it will be very competitive. Their driver combination is as good as it gets, they will shake things up.

  2. He had a smile underneath the black mask but my opinion from the shakedown remains. Ferrari is 4th best. Fighting for the lower points.

  3. I think Ferrari at the beginning will be very fast but the 2 teams will outdevelop them after 6-7 races….

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