Ferrari had a disastrous season in 2020. Despite the restrictions on car development for 2021, the team hopes to have made some progress during the winter. Mattia Binotto believes that this has been at least partially successful, but does not want to draw any comparisons with other teams just yet.
"We were very slow here in qualifying last year," Binotto said as quoted by Motorsport-Total.com, who attributes this lack of speed to a low top speed. "It doesn't seem like top speed is a disadvantage for us anymore."
Ferrari slow to get up to speed?
Ferrari were the second fastest car on track in the morning. In the hands of Charles Leclerc, the SF21 drove a 1:30.486, three tenths slower than Sergio Perez. It was actually the first time that Ferrari set a competitive time this weekend. Especially in the hands of Carlos Sainz the car seemed difficult to drive so far.
Sainz has a huge job ahead of him, but some things may also become clear as a result of his arrival. If he experiences the same problems as Sebastian Vettel did last year, it will be hard for Ferrari to blame the driver for that.