F1 | Binotto: “We are happy with the laps we have covered”

Ferrari closed the three days of testing in Barcelona with 2,052 kilometers covered. This is the most important data among all those that the Scuderia has collected in Montmelò, and for many reasons. The project was born without flaws of youth, and the reliability confirmed from the first session allows the technicians to return to Maranello with a quantity of data that probably exceeds even the most optimistic expectations.

Mattia Binotto explained that it is too early for evaluations on the performance front, but in general Ferrari convinced (especially the rivals) by proving to be balanced in all ‘runs’ and with an engine that, according to the competition, confirmed a step forward important compared to last year.

In Bahrain it will be another story as they will play with their cards open, but in the meantime the F1-75 has met the most important expectations, namely those of the technicians in red uniforms who looked after it for three days in the Montmelò garage.

Satisfied?
“We are happy, first of all because we managed to cover many laps. We have become familiar with the car and collected a lot of data, but if we talk about lap times, I think it’s too early. In tests, each team runs in different conditions, and everyone is faster than what we have seen in recent days. It was important for us to grind kilometers and collect as much data as possible, now we will return to Maranello and we will have a few days available for analysis before leaving for Bahrain. The goal now is to try to optimize the car in view of the next tests “.

Your pace seemed very good and, above all, you seem to have handled the hopping problems that emerged in these tests better than other teams …
“I don’t think our pace is that strong, as I said, we must always consider that the conditions in which the various teams run are different. I think that when they are all in qualifying and in the race, or in the same conditions, the group will be much more compact than what we are led to think today. Plus I expect to see a lot of technical innovations in the next test, so we need to wait a little longer to get a first idea of ​​the hierarchies. With regard to the hopping, it was a problem that we faced and I would say solved, given that today the car proved to be much more stable. We are managing the situation ”.

Is the decision not to race in Sochi the right one?
“We met last night, teams, Formula 1 and FIA, and we decided that under the current circumstances it would be a mistake to go to the Russian Grand Prix. We are looking forward, see what will happen, we really hope that the situation will change very soon “.

Will there be any news with your Russian partners?
“We have partners like Kaspersky who are connected to Russia, but it’s actually a global company, and it’s a long-term partnership for us. We are monitoring the current situation, we will discuss with all our partners, but so far we have no particular concerns “.

Have you found a good correlation?
“From the first morning we collected a lot of data, it was important because these cars are very different from the previous ones, and the first goal is to get to know them better. The goal of this test session was to try to map the car in all conditions trying to understand the correlations with the wind tunnel and the simulator. We have collected a lot of data, the verification of the correlation will be a job that awaits us in the next few days in Maranello, where we will try to cross all the data and check if everything works well. But in general the car performs well, so we don’t expect big problems in terms of correlations. It is not a question of identifying problems, but of optimizing the final performance ”.

Do you expect improvements in the next tests in Bahrain?
“When we go to Bahrain we will be a few days before the first race of the season, so I expect everyone will have race and qualifying simulations in their programs, they will try to get the maximum performance out of the cars and competitiveness will become clearer for everyone. “.

How different will the car we see in Bahrain be?
“It won’t be much different from what you saw in this test. So far we have been far from our best performances not only due to the fuel load used and the engine settings, but also in general due to the way the car is used, including the driving style of the drivers. So let’s wait a few more days and we’ll see what will emerge in Bahrain, certainly as Ferrari we are always worried about our rivals’ upgrades, and I’m pretty sure they will be very, very strong ”.

Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari F1-75

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images