Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says the team’s advantage over its rivals in practice was down to them running different engine modes.
However he admitted the team has seen positives outcomes from the changes made to its car to address its lack of performance in Australia.“Today we focused on ourselves and our problems and the modifications we made after Australia, and to react and address the issues that we had,” Binotto told Racefans and other media in Bahrain.
He said the team’s 0.6 second margin over closest rival Mercedes is “misleading” and they expect “certainly a more tough battle” in qualifying on Saturday.
“The others will be very strong tomorrow,” said Binotto. “I think it’s quite obvious, you may see the GPS data, the speed on the straight, we were certainly pushing different engine modes compared to what the others were doing today. So I’m expecting a very tough battle tomorrow.
“But I think [what’s] more important is to stay focused on ourselves. We improved our situation after Australia. This is quite a different track so let’s say that we do not at least have to date the problem we suffered in Australia thanks, yes, to the track, and also thanks to modifications we made.”
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joe pineapples
29th March 2019, 19:24
Anyone else already fed up of all the team rhetoric? (and we’re only on the second weekend).
Jere (@jerejj)
29th March 2019, 19:39
@joe pineapples Yes, LOL.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
29th March 2019, 20:01
Ditto. Second race weekend and the weekend per se hasn’t even started.
Adan_Finnell
29th March 2019, 20:25
I dunno it’s part of the show in my opinion and of its elegant and glamorous façade.
petebaldwin (@)
29th March 2019, 20:55
I was fed up with it 3 years ago… There is no other sport on the planet where individuals/teams constantly say their rivals are better than them when they aren’t.
Peter
29th March 2019, 20:15
Does anyone think that Mercedes is only half a second ahead of Renault,mclaren, haas, and toro Rosso.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
29th March 2019, 22:11
Ofc not, mercedes is the only team that has potential to be half a second quicker than ferrari and red bull at most tracks, let alone midfield!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th March 2019, 6:11
Exactly. If you look at other runs, it looks as if merc has .4 on Ferrari and RB are there on s2.
Xcm
29th March 2019, 21:18
It’s painfully obvious f1 teams think us fans are stupid. First “party mode” , now this. WE KNOW HOW FUEL INJECTION WORKS, for the love of god stop treating us like Indycar fans…
Xcm
29th March 2019, 21:19
It’s painfully obvious f1 teams think us fans are stupid. First “party mode” , now this. WE KNOW HOW FUEL INJECTION WORKS, for the love of god stop treating us like Indycar fans…
BlackJackFan
30th March 2019, 3:51
Looks to me VET/Fer. are going for the VET/RBR tactic: qualify on the front row (if you can call this idiotic staggered grid a “row”, then turn the engine down to last the race, while holding the others up…
“ContentiousComment”