Mattia Binotto doesn’t gives away much on Ferrari’s improved run after F1 engine change, as Andreas Seidl is not worried for McLaren amid P3 fight.
At Austin last weekend during the F1 US GP, Ferrari were impressive, both drivers ahead of both McLarens after qualifying. There has been some talk of the Italian manufacturer improving greatly on engine side of things where their overall speed has improved off-late, particularly Russia and once more in Texas.
There are murmurs about the engine gains on the Energy Recovery System, but when pressed about same last weekend, Ferrari’s Binotto was discreetly evasive. The Italian did not directly answered how the new engine has helped them and if the ERS is the area where they have improved to improve the overall power generation.
“If you look, generally speaking, this year on McLaren has been always very competitive with the medium/high speed corners,” said Binotto to written media. “Again it has been the case in Austin. But I think if I look at the overall performance of the weekend, we have been ahead of them which was very obvious in qualifying and Charles has been half a second on average or Ricciardo, finishing 25 seconds ahead of him.
“Generally speaking, in the overall balance of the lap. I think we have been clearly faster in Austin. That’s it is a shame with Charles, not having to get ahead at the end of the race compared to Ricciardo. On the paper, it was not a circuit which was suiting obviously our car. That’s why I’m pleased with the progress I’ve seen in the last races.
“Certainly, with the help of the power unit both for quali and the race. That give me some confidence for the next races. In Mexico, we are running there with maximum downforce, performance on the power unit. It is a track where power sensitivity is less important so not only the power unit is no longer still key to manage a gap to Mercedes. It will be in our favour the Mexican track compared to what has been Austin,” summed up Binotto.
He sounds confident for for upcoming races but Binotto still didn’t wish to give more away regarding the new Ferrari engine. “The power is always available through the straight line, so you get the benefit from it at the start of the straight line and as well at the end. Again, the way we can quantify that, if I look at Austin. We’re running maximum downforce.”
In the McLaren corner Seidl gives his opinion after there was a significant “gap” between the teams fighting for third, despite the British outfit being 3.5 points ahead. Ferrari appeared to have upped the ante, especially after Leclerc finished about 40s ahead of Ricciardo – granted the circumstances were such that the Monegasque could pull through.
“I’m never worried because being worried doesn’t help me or the team,” said Seidl to media including FormulaRapida.net. “It’s a reality they’ve made a good step forward with their package, also down to the upgrade they introduced on the power unit side. And that gave them a good advantage, especially in these last two races compared to us, so that’s the reality we are in.
“But at the same time it’s simply important to focus on ourselves, we know that there’s no upgrades coming anymore on the car side or power unit side for our package. So we know that there’s tracks coming that will probably play a bit more to the strengths of our car, but there are also tracks coming at the end of the season, where we will struggle compared to Ferrari.
“So it’s simply important to make sure we extract each weekend again the maximum out of the package as it is, execute clean weekends, clean races, have a good strategy and then hopefully that’s enough to battle them until the last lap in Abu Dhabi,” summed up Seidl. The impressive part is that Seidl is impressed by Ferrari’s improved performance but he does not let it worry him.
It was another race and there are five more left where McLaren can get it right. In fairness, they are not dwelling on Ferrari impressive showing and concentrating on their own efforts. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo also noticed the Ferrari improvement.
“Carlos was quicker in the first sector in Austin and that was a bit of a surprise because the high speed is normally our strength I feel, so yeah normally I would say low speed but there I struggled more in the high speed,” said Ricciardo.
The story was written by Neil Farrell
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