F1 News: Ferrari Chief Is Waiting For Red Bull To Run Out Of Money
Ferrari team principal Mittia Binotto is obviously disappointed in the 2-3 finish for the team at the Miami Grand Prix. But one thing he’s holding onto right now is the budget cap and how it could affect Red Bull as the season progresses.
Max Verstappen has shown incredible performance as of late, continuing his victory of every race he’s completed. This has meant the driver is certainly making his way closer to current Driver Standings leader Charles Leclerc with just 19 points between the two now.
“Certainly when you are starting with two cars on the front row you are hoping for a better result, for a win,” Binotto told F1 TV.
“If you consider how many points we are taking home from here, we can’t be too disappointed, given that we are leading both championships, but it’s clear we now need to respond.”
– Mattia #essereFerrari 🔴 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/OhweAW1vQ2
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) May 9, 2022
“We are disappointed no doubt, but being disappointed with second and third is great. It means the teams and the drivers, and everyone at Ferrari, are no longer happy with a second and third.
“I think that is progress.”
With Red Bull taking the win over Ferrari in the last couple of races: Imola and Miami, Ferrari has decided to bide its time, with the team making very few upgrades so far this season. Red Bull on the other hand has made several large upgrades so far, and will be edging closer to the budget cap with them spending a large amount of the $140 million allowed.
“Red Bull had better pace, as it was in Imola, they were a couple of tenths a lap faster,” Binotto continued.
“They have developed the car since the start of the season, which we didn’t really.
“They have spent money as well so I hope that at some stage with the budget cap they’ll stop developing while we have some upgrades available.
“The budget cap situation, there is a cap, I don’t think they can develop so much, and I’m hoping that will not be the case for the rest of the season.”
It’s true that Red Bull are catching up to the Ferraris, but the team has made very little in regards to changes so far this season, so Binotto is very happy with the success of the cars.
“I always said we needed to wait five races to access the relative competitiveness as this is a brand new car so everybody will try to correct whatever was wrong at the beginning of the season, and after five races we are leading the championships still.
“The package is a good package, we have not developed since the start, we will have some upgrades at Barcelona and we hope those upgrades will put us in the fight with the Red Bull.
“We know they are slightly faster on the start and we have better downforce to go through the corners, but if I look at Miami they were as fast as us in the corners.
“That is down to the upgrades they did in the last races, so congrats to them, but as I said before I hope with the budget cap they snap at some stage.”
