More recently, however, Ferrari have seen Mercedes emerge as Red Bull’s main threat in some races, with their own F1-75 lacking in performance. This came with Mercedes having overcome the early bouncy issues they had with their W13 and finally being able to unlock the potential they knew was always in the car. Mercedes’ progress suggests the team will be back in contention next year as it looks set to change some of its challenger’s key concepts. And that could leave Ferrari facing another season of disappointment after failing to challenge for the crown after failing to capitalize on having the best package at the start of this year. But Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes the current competitive picture between his outfit and Mercedes does not reflect the real situation for next year – because he says Maranello has shut down development of the 2022 car early to turn his attention to next year. “Mercedes is coming back right as they have developed the car more than us,” he said. “We know ourselves that we stopped developing this car too early to focus on 2023. So I’m not too concerned about the rate of development because I also know when we stopped developing it.” Mattia Binotto, Team Principal, Ferrari Photo: Ferrari Ferrari have not won a race since the Austrian Grand Prix in July, when Charles Leclerc passed to beat Max Verstappen. Since then, Red Bull has won every grand prix. While Ferrari were clearly chasing better results than they were able to deliver, Binotto sees no need to worry about the situation. “Certainly if I look at the last few races they haven’t always been great, but in Singapore I think we were very competitive,” he said. “Japan was in the wet, and we weren’t as fast, but it wasn’t a drama and certainly not in terms of quality. In the United States, Austin, I think in terms of quality we were competitive, but not as much as we would have expected in the race. “[In Mexico] it’s much worse but i don’t think it’s the same trend because singapore is competitive, japan not too bad, usa good properties. “But the task is first to try to analyze what is happening and what were the main issues here in Mexico and try to come back competitively to our level of competitiveness at least for the last two games, including Sao Paulo. So we definitely hope to be there and fight for a better result.” Read also:
