Binotto: If we had started better, the outcome would have been different

Charles Leclerc finished second at the Singapore Grand Prix yesterday, although he started from pole position but did not take advantage of the advantage this position gives on a narrow urban circuit. He then did everything in his power, but failed to get ahead of Sergio Perez, who took the lead in the opening seconds of the race.

Scuderia head Mattia Binotto commented on the race’s results, acknowledging that opportunities to win were missed due to a poor start.

Mattia Binotto: “First of all, the start was not that important and that had consequences for the rest of the race. I think if we had started better, the result would have been better. Speaking specifically about the start, Charles’ reaction time wasn’t bad, he did everything right, but then the drive wheels started to slip, because the grip wasn’t very good.

This affected our race and we need to find out why the grip of the Ferrari Leclerc drive wheels was worse than we expected. However, we got second and third place – I think this is still a good result. Given the situation in the Constructors’ Championship, the results of the weekend in Singapore are good, as we earned a lot of points.

Overall, the car performed well on both the wet and dry track, both for the race and qualifying. This is the main positive result of the weekend. In that respect we can be satisfied – now everything was clearly better than in Spa or Zandvoort, where we had a much more difficult time.

When we switched to slicks, our car was the fastest on the Singapore circuit at some points. I also don’t think we could do better in terms of tactics. And although the results of the race upset us, we were still close to victory, which was not the case for a long time.”