From Mattia Binotto a message to Mercedes and a promise to Charles Leclerc

The worst is behind us, and the goals are clear.

Mattia Binotto is positive after the Sao Paulo Sprint Race, and he says so without mincing words to ‘Sky Sport’. To which he adds a promise to Charles Leclerc, who is chasing world number two. “The spectres of the last Grand Prix are erased,” the Ferrari team principal assured, “The difficulties we had in Mexico here so far have not presented themselves. We will see then tomorrow with the race, however, the difficulties are not there, not even the problems we had with the Power Unit. And this definitely gives us a hand.”

Now there is the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to run. “Today’s race was an appetizer of what we will see tomorrow,” Binotto predicted. “So tire degradation will be an important element, there can definitely be close fights and there will definitely be more than one tire change. So strategy will be key. I think we will see some great battles tomorrow, having said that Mercedes is very strong both in race pace and in tire management.”

On the strength of Mercedes compared to the Maranello-based Rosse, however, Binotto has clear ideas: “We have been focused on the development of next year’s Ferrari for some time now. We stopped that very early this year, while Mercedes brought developments to both the U.S. and Mexico. It is not surprising that they are fast now, nor that they are in the battle. However, we are realizing that next year will not be a duel of two.”

“I am very surprised that Verstappen and Perez did not swap positions. It seemed like something very simple and trivial to do, but they didn’t do it. That said, the battle for second place is very important. Especially the one for the constructors’ championship. Then, for the season that Charles has had, finishing second would be a nice goal that we really care about. We will put him in the best condition to achieve it,” Binotto promised.