Problems on the Ferrari? Mattia Binotto responds to Charles Leclerc

The pilot calls, the team principal answers.

Mattia Binotto analyzes Ferrari’s Saturday, with Charles Leclerc qualifying only seventh for the Mexican Grand Prix by reporting issues on the engine that he could not identify. But the Cavallino team principal, reached by ‘Sky Sport,’ tried to downplay it.

“We haven’t had a chance to look at the data yet,” Binotto explained, “There was a problem with his DRS, which broke in the final part of his attempt. That said, Mexico’s is a difficult track. The air is thin, there is little grip and in general it is difficult in terms of driveability. And also for the engine, power unit and turbo everything becomes more critical. These are the conditions, but they are a constant characteristic of this track.”

Ferrari’s difficulties, in any case, did not surprise Binotto: “That it was going to be a very tight qualifying we knew, we saw it already from Q1. Looking at the individual top sectors, Carlos Sainz could have even got the front row. But it’s hard to put together a full lap. Q3 unfortunately went like this. It could have happened to others, it happened to us. But I think overall the potential is there to have a good race tomorrow.”

Finally, Binotto assured that he is confident that Ferrari’s Sunday will not be as problematic as Saturday: “The race will be less complicated, because you run with more gasoline. All the times are dilated, braking is longer, cornering slower. The dynamics of the race in Mexico is very different from qualifying, where you run on ice and on a knife-edge. Saturday on this track is more extreme, but I expect everything to get easier in the race. And the most loaded configuration, the one we have chosen, we believe is the best for the race.”