Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto admits it is hard to see which of the remaining races this year the team could win.
The team scored back-to-back victories at Spa and Monza, tracks which were expected to favour the SF90’s strong straight-line speed.“We knew that these ones were tracks where we may be competitive,” said Binotto. “It was not a given but certainly being more power-sensitive, having long straights, it was important for us not to miss any other opportunities as we missed in the first part of the [season].
“The fact that we capitalised on the strength of our cars in these two races makes us very happy.”
However Binotto acknowledged the upcoming races are likely to be more challenging for his team.
“I think it will be as [in] the first part of the season. There will be races as it has been in Germany, as it has been in Canada, Bahrain, maybe we can be still competitive, and others where the weaknesses of our car will not give us the possibility certainly to go for the win. But difficult to guess which one.
“It’s important for us to continue developing the car, understanding it, For it to have the best balance and give the drivers the best opportunity whenever they come.”
Sebastian Vettel, who is yet to win a race this year, believe he can still score a victory before the season is over.
“I think we still have some races coming where we will be more competitive than [in] others,” he said. “But overall it’s maybe just about getting a good weekend.
“The speed is there so I’m not worried. It’s just a matter of putting things together but I think we have a lot of races and a lot of time.
“On the other hand we have to make sure we keep developing the car in the right way so that we are more competitive at the end of the season than the are now. Obviously these type of tracks as Mattia explained might favour us a bit more than others but ideally we are competitive everywhere we go.”
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Todfod (@todfod)
17th September 2019, 7:44
They should stand a decent chance Brazil and Russia. I don’t think Russia and Abu Dhabi will be that bad for them either. The only circuits they may struggle at are Singapore and Japan.
Chaitanya
17th September 2019, 8:15
Only Interlagos others are quite dubious for this team. Mexico with their low drag philosophy expect them to be a disaster.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th September 2019, 8:17
@todfod But those circuits have a lot of corners, though. In Sochi, the full-throttle stretch from the last corner till T2 is the only truly long full-throttle stretch there, other than that it’s pretty much corner after corner, and the same with Brazil except for the climb up to T1 while in Abu Dhabi, Only S2 favors straight-line speed. Most of the remaining venues are Mercedes-favored based on the trend of this season so far.
Singapore Marina Bay Street Circuit – (Mercedes/RBR-favored)
Sochi Autodrom – (Mercedes)
Suzuka – (Mercedes)
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – (RBR based on the recent past although might be a close call with Mercedes as well.)
Circuit Of The Americas – (Mercedes)
Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace – (Mercedes, although RBR went quite well last season as well.)
Yas Marina Circuit – (Mercedes)
isaac (@invincibleisaac)
17th September 2019, 8:34
@jerejj – I would say Red Bull have a very chance chance at CotA based on the past 2 years. Verstappen going from 16th to 4th in 2017, and then from 18th to 2nd last year. So long as he starts anywhere near the front I think he’s got a good chance, although Hamilton always goes well there.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th September 2019, 10:48
@invincibleisaac But that precisely is why one shouldn’t really draw definite conclusions from the last two seasons because that’s something that has tended to happen on every permanent-circuit, though. Climbing through the field in a Mercedes, Ferrari, or Red Bull has been a common feature in the recent past irrespective of the track bar mainly Monaco and Melbourne. COTA shares similar characteristics to Silverstone, and Circuit Paul Ricard to an extent (as does Suzuka), so, therefore, it’s predominantly a Mercedes-favored one. Even Mexico mightn’t necessarily be a slam dunk RBR-favored venue anymore given the pace of Mercedes in both Monaco, and Hungary. The same with Singapore (which was already evident last season) but we shall wait and find out.
boris
17th September 2019, 11:50
Mexico had a lot to do with the Renault engines which had the biggest turbos to get the most of that rarified air. Will be interesting this year to see the Hondas are as competitive .
MacLeod (@macleod)
17th September 2019, 13:37
Mexico is more how slippery you can get without losing downforce. Engine power is not important it’s all chassis
Esploratore (@esploratore)
17th September 2019, 19:34
Boris, it’s mainly red bull chassis there, look at 2018, true hulkenberg got 6th but he got 2 laps gap, that’s huge, if it were just renault engine he’d have been closer.
mzso (@mzso)
18th September 2019, 10:44
@boris
Probably not near as much, but also neither the Renault engines, because they changed their turbo design, as far as I remember. But last year Ferrari was second Mercedes was only third, so it might be close between with RB (different engine) and Ferrari (general fallback) dropping back.
@macleod @esploratore
You guys mistaken. The RB chassis was probably the best all around last year. Here they were in front because the power-gap was much mitigated. That’s the variable that changed. The Renault chassis was just sub-par, as it is now.
Josh (@canadianjosh)
17th September 2019, 9:34
Charles seems to have great speed on any given day on Saturday so I don’t see why they can’t steal a couple wins away from a “Mercedes” favourable circuit. The only way of that happening though is to have a couple Ferrari’s at the front instead of just one to mix strategy up and to push Mercedes into strategy that they don’t want.
RB13
17th September 2019, 11:15
Let’s not get carried away. He’s just scraped 2 wins in a car basically built for the last two circuits, he certainly hasn’t shown that he is capable of outperforming the machinery just yet.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
17th September 2019, 12:05
Exactly. Which is why he was forgiven by his team for what he did to his teammate during qualifying at Monza. It is a Ferrari track and Ferrari wanted a 1-2 pole and a 1-2 finish. He had to cut a chicane, move under braking, and push HAM off the track to win on a Ferrari track. Not saying he can’t win but as you said, “Let’s not get carried away.”
Joseph (@bigjoe)
17th September 2019, 22:27
@jimfromus
If Ferrari can get the car to work as well on the Mediums like Mercedes Benz do, then we will get very carried away. Leclerc will wipe the floor with them. (albeit if Ferrari don’t mess up strategy)
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th September 2019, 13:11
No reason why he couldn’t steal 2 wins form Mercedes, and 2 wins is exactly what he has now.
But anytime it happens it is very close and highly contested. Considering how good a form he is in, there is no telling what could happen though. He was brilliant last two races, I give him high odds of fighting for a win or crashing in attempt.
hamiledon
17th September 2019, 14:41
Charles and Max are best drivers of the current grid.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
17th September 2019, 19:36
Yes, I wouldn’t count hamilton out for a few years yet, but he has the best car on average, ferrari is engine-only this year, red bull lacks a bit on engine department, and mercedes is the best all round car, competitive on all tracks, those 2 should give him a serious challenge with the same car.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
17th September 2019, 22:28
+1
Winning in 2nd and 3rd teams. Senna, Alonso and Schumacher only did that in recent decades
bosyber (@bosyber)
18th September 2019, 5:51
Well, and Hamilton, @bigjoe, as he won in every season, while Mclaren didn’t win the WCC, even if we say 2008 he might have had an equal car to the winner (Kovalainen being the weak point, against Massa, Raikkonen), and 2012 he could have done it, had the team been up to it.
bosyber (@bosyber)
18th September 2019, 6:01
And one could argue Button did it too, both in BAR, and in the McLaren, especially in changing conditions.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
18th September 2019, 8:33
Rosberg won twice in one the those years Hamilton supposedly impressed by ‘winning a single race’
Craig Simons
17th September 2019, 14:41
Seeing as Ferrari accidentally built a dragster this season, rather than a Formula 1 car, I’m going to say none. Then again, the long start/finish straight at Mexico may be very favourable to them; let’s just hope their parachutes are working…
GechiChan (@gechichan)
17th September 2019, 15:49
I honestly expect them to be beaten by Renault in Mexico.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
17th September 2019, 19:38
Don’t think renault is that good in mexico, it’s red bull’s chassis that made the renault engine look better last year, despite that fast straight mexico is not an engine track.
Craig Simons
18th September 2019, 20:08
Fair point actually, considering how twisty the rest of the circuit is. Any advantage Ferrari may gain down the start/finish straight will be long gone, by the time they’re exiting turn seventeen.
Bulgarian (@bulgarian)
17th September 2019, 19:47
My prediction is that Ferrari will win one more GP. As we remember in German GP, weather can play an important role in some of the races (my pick for Leclerc’s 3rd and final win this season is Brazilian GP).
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
17th September 2019, 19:57
none
they barely won on the tracks where there engine matteres most.
sadly for Leclerc, he won’t score a third win in 2019
Joseph (@bigjoe)
17th September 2019, 22:30
@justarandomdutchguy
It’s a shame we have so much support for various drivers and none are in equal teams.
We’d have a different winner in every race if Red Bull and Ferrari were spot on equal with Mercedes Benz.
Would Love to see then end of computer software too.
Jockey Ewing
18th September 2019, 1:29
Senor Binotto gone so much on the safe side now, that he doesnot even dare to say something
predictable using his engineering intuitions.
“I think we need to box for inters”
Thank you for this Max, i laughed at it so much!
I think Suzuka is quite “bad” without enough downforce, but not enough is relative in the case of F1 cars. They ‘ll struggle. More than they would like. Interlagos is quite similar, maybe even worse for them because the rollercoaster adds to the load changes, which and downforce helps quite much if you have a lot of load change.
Someone told about the Renault engines at Mexico. I dont know how much tehir turbo helps them, but isn’t power loss due to altitude proportional to the ICE’s theoretical power output? So in their case loss is quite a lot now, while their aero is still not good, so i expect them to perform quite bad. Now its quite easy to believe they have a lot of raw power, after the good speed they had at Spa and Monza.
search
18th September 2019, 8:21
same as in Silverstone, in Suzuka some of the high-speed corners will turn into “straights” now with the 2019 cars. It should be a good circuit for Ferrari.
I wouldn’t cound out Leclerc for Singapore either though – remember that he won FP3 in Monaca, and they’ve made massive progress since then. For sure the other cars are still better in slow corners, but if they can get the tyres to work (which should be the case, as Ferrari is strong on rear-limited tracks) the now way superiour qualifying mode could still be enough to keep them in contention.
mzso (@mzso)
18th September 2019, 10:46
I wish Mercedes would blunder a few weekends and Ferrari were better than them on a few others, and RB continuing to get stronger. That might result in a title fight yet by the end of the season with Verstappen.