Binotto: No point regretting Ferrari’s early season form

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has dismissed regrets over the poor start his Italian team made to the 2019 Formula 1 world championship and wants to take the positives out of it.

Despite being tipped as pre-season favourites, Ferrari struggled to replicate its impressive testing pace over the opening half of the season as it failed to win a race until Charles Leclerc’s breakthrough victory at the Belgium Grand Prix.

Since then Ferrari has claimed four consecutive pole positions plus three race wins, including an impressive 1-2 in Singapore, as it cements its standing as closest contender to Mercedes.

But having been predicted to challenge for the world titles this season, Binotto says it cannot regret missing expectations due to past mistakes.

“I think having regret does not make sense. Really, you need to move forward and look ahead,” Binotto said. “If we were not performing as expected or we missed opportunities somehow it’s because we’ve got some responsibilities on that, and I think more important is to move forward, learn from mistakes, and making sure they are not happening again in the future.

“It’s not a matter of regret. It would be a regret if we would not learn from that, and I think that as a team we are growing and that’s more important.”

Binotto also feels a fair reflection on Ferrari’s 2019 campaign will only come at the end of the season and hopes the Italian manufacturer can surpass its 2018 achievements this year.

Last season Ferrari were runners-up to Mercedes with a total of 571 points thanks to the highlights of six wins and six pole positions.

“At the start of the season we focused race by race and try to optimise the result of each single race, and only at the end of the season we can somehow try to draw the line and see where we are,” he said. “It would be great to do at least better than last year, as that as a team at least would show we are improving.

“I know we had a bad start to the season, it may be difficult, but not impossible, and that should be the first objective, and then let’s start dreaming, and if we can do more, we would not reject it.”