Binotto: We failed to unlock the car’s potential again

Charles Leclerc finished third at Zandvoort, his best result since the Austrian Grand Prix in July. His Ferrari partner Carlos Sainz’s race turned out to be more eventful – at the start, at the pit stop, the mechanics did not immediately remove the left rear wheel and closer to the finish, the Spaniard was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe exit to the pit lane for Fernando Alonso.

Commenting on the results of the Dutch Grand Prix, the head of the Scuderia Mattia Binotto explained the lack of speed and promised to work to eliminate the problems that arose in today’s race.

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: “The main factor that led to these results is that we are not fast enough. Given the pace shown in qualifying, we were hoping for more, but throughout the race the car lacked speed, especially on medium and hard tyres, which led to this result.

Several races in a row, starting with Hungary, we didn’t do as well as we could. In Hungary, Spa and Zandvoort we were not able to use the full potential of the machine. We need to find out what’s holding us back in this and fix the problem.

We can say with certainty that such results have nothing to do with the technical directive that came into effect in Spa, because we also had problems in Hungary. The car has more potential than the results of the past races. At the start of the season we were fast, but now we don’t have the same speed.

A malfunction at Carlos’ pit stop? The decision to hold it was made too late and we didn’t have time to react. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m sure we’ll be adding more in the future. That worries me less than the speed of the car.”

Charles Leclerc (3rd): “I’m not really happy with third place after starting from second position, but we weren’t fast enough. The first stint on Soft tires was good, I was confident, but after the switch to Medium it became more difficult, especially considering Mercedes was very fast on Hard.

I had no luck with the virtual safety car, but I don’t think it affected my result much. Apparently the rivals have increased their pace, especially in the race, and we need to work on it.

First in Monza. In theory, the job is not with us, but the team is always highly motivated at this stage. I can’t wait for the team’s home race and the tifosi meeting.”

Carlos Sainz (8th): “Today everything that could go wrong, went wrong. During the race I had a few more meters of problems – first at the pit stop, then overtaking for the yellow flags – and I would have had a foul. Then I was fined for leaving the track unsafely.

We have to analyze what happened at the pit stop and add to this as a team, because the malfunction cost us a few points.

As for the unsafe turn to the track, I started correctly but had to slow down so as not to knock over the McLaren mechanic. I saved a man’s life and I was fined. I’m going to talk to the FIA ​​because I don’t understand this approach.

We lacked race pace. During the race I was not happy with the behavior of the car – it was difficult to drive and the rear tires were very hot. We need to figure out why our car wasn’t as competitive in the race as it was in qualifying.”