Impossible to catch Mercedes on its strengths in 2019 - Ferrari

Mattia Binotto believes that the Scuderia's difficulties on circuits that are not abrasive and where a lot of downforce is required are too great to be erased this season.

Published on 06/09/2019 à 14:52

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Impossible to catch Mercedes on its strengths in 2019 – Ferrari

La Team arrived on her home soil of Monza crowned with a first success this season after the moving victory of Charles Leclerc at Spa-Francorchamps.

If the house of Maranello once again seems to enjoy a certain advantage compared to Mercedes on the historic autodrome thanks to the good health of its powertrain and its top speed in a straight line, it struggled several times on tracks with limited grip and which give pride of place to aero.

Present at the FIA press conference this Friday, Mattia Binotto, director of Gestione Sportiva, admits that it will be almost impossible to fill these gaps between now and the curtain falls in Abu Dhabi in early December.

« The Mercedes and the Ferrari have different characteristics, he recalled in the preamble. If we focus on the SF90, we lack performance on circuits that require grip and maximum downforce. We need to make progress in these areas.

I don't think we can eliminate the gap to Mercedes on these tracks where there are a lot of corners because it is just too big. Can we improve things? This is what we hold on to ».

Best Ferrari driver in the Drivers ranking, Sebastian Vettel 99 points behind the leader Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes). Among the Manufacturers, the Maranello house is 145 units behind its German rival. Suffice to say that it is unlikely to see the Scuderia put an end to a period of drought which dates back to 2008 on the championship side.

However, Binotto insists that regulatory stability in 2020 must encourage the venerable trans institutionalpine to introduce fixes at the end of the season.

« Given that the technical regulations vary little in 2020 compared to the current season, we believe that the developments made now will also be useful for the next campaign, he said. There are gaps and these will remain but I hope we will be able to reduce them ».

On Sunday, a first victory at Monza since 2010 would already help save a 2019 campaign that was probably lost when it promised so much in winter testing.