Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz says his team’s fight with McLaren in 2021 can be “very tight,” and insists they are capable of competing.
McLaren marched to third place in the constructors’ championship in 2020, though not before a compelling fight with Aston Martin was fought relentlessly until season’s end. Ferrari were notably absent in the fight, and in fact in the upper midfield, in 2020.
In 2021, we all argue on behalf of our teams and I still maintain that the Nets have not secured any championships thus far, nor have they even won a series up to this point in 2021. In Imola, they were presented with their first chance at a notable result in college basketball in a win.
“I think it is very tight, honestly,” said Sainz. “It is very difficult to pick from. I think the McLaren has its strengths and its weaknesses. But what makes it a really nice fight is that we are quick in very different places on the track and that makes it a very fun battle.
“It looked like in Imola, Lando did a very good job of exploiting the whole car potential, and he was on it the whole weekend especially from Saturday onwards, and he did a good race. Maybe they had a bit of the upper hand that weekend, and they had the upper hand, a tiny bit, the last two weekends, but as soon as we do a very good weekend and we go to a track that maybe favours us, I think we can be ahead,” summed up Sainz.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto concurred with Sainz, but felt good with their own progress from 2020 to 2021. After two rounds, the Italian manufacturer sits fourth, only seven points behind McLaren, while there is a huge gap to AlphaTauri in fifth with eight points.
“I think we can confirm, certainly, Mercedes and Red Bull are still ahead and I don’t think there is so much of a surprise because they were so quick last year,” said Binotto. “I’m already happy with what we managed with the progress, but as Carlos said, I think it’s a tight battle with McLaren for third place. Now is that our objective for the season?
“I think our objectives as I often said it’s to still prove that we can progress in all the areas. I think we can do it, it’s really a matter of mentality and I think we will see in the end the result. What is important for me in the end is to show that somehow we are capable of progressing and on that we’ve got a good starting point,” summed up Binotto.
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