Binotto: Beating F1 rival McLaren not Ferrari’s main objective

Having displayed some impressive performance to beat McLaren in Monaco and Baku, Ferrari lost ground to its chief F1 rival with a woeful display in France as it failed to register a point.

At the Styrian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc shadowed Lando Norris home in sixth and seventh, enabling Ferrari to outscore McLaren by four points.

The result leaves Ferrari trialing McLaren by 12 points in the championship standings but Binotto insists his side is looking at the bigger picture in its quest to improve.

“How much is it important for us to get points on McLaren? It isn’t,” Binotto said. “As I said at the start of the season, our main objectives is to make sure we are progressing in view of the next year and the next seasons and making sure we are doing better in every single area, making sure we are learning from the mistakes, for example in France.

“For us, the third position is an objective but not the main one. The main one is as a team we are improving and being competitive in the future. So yes, great we got some points in the constructors’ but that should not be our top objective in the season.

“And the fact our drivers are doing well as opposed to McLaren – I’m not judging the others, I will not start doing it, I will only judge ourselves and I will say I’m very proud the way our drivers are fitting into the team.”

Ferrari claimed back-to-back shock pole positions in Monaco and Baku but has since struggled for pace in qualifying, an area it has been holding the edge over McLaren in so far this season.

Despite being encouraged by Ferrari’s strong race pace in Styria, Binotto  wants his team to be starting this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix from higher up on the grid.

“I think that overall we are happy, but no doubt starting ahead in quali would’ve been better, so if we look at the overall balance of the weekend, our quali result needs to be improved,” he said.

“But we’ve got an opportunity in a weeks’ time back here at the same track, try to address it. Again, the team will work together to try and understand how we may improve our speed in the quali.

“But overall I think we can be happy. I think starting ahead, without the accident on the first lap for Charles, the overall result would have been better. I think that’s the way we need to look at the weekend.”