Ferrari is second in the constructors’ championship and second in the drivers’ standings, but is not entirely satisfied with its Formula One season. In recent days, the future of Mattia Binotto at the head of the team has been called into question. When asked about his team’s situation, Carlos Sainz was keen to point out that it would take time to get the Scuderia back to the top.

A lot of movement is expected at Ferrari during the off-season. While Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be there next season, this may not be the case for Mattia Binotto.

The latter could leave the Scuderia very soon, with the Gazzetta dello Sport even indicating on Friday that the boss of the Italian team would be negotiating his departure.  He will be paying for the many mistakes he made this season which have, in part, kept Ferrari out of the fight for the world title.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day”

When asked by Sky Sports about the Scuderia’s situation, Carlos Sainz did not want to “get into what I prefer (or what) I don’t prefer”. Instead, the Spanish driver was keen to point out that:

“…from experience, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you have to take into account where we’ve come from (…) If you look at the progress we’ve made as a team over the last two seasons, it’s huge, and the team is working well.

We are very critical of ourselves in private. Probably in terms of public opinion, we protect every individual in the team and we have this famous culture of no blame, where we want to, obviously, protect everyone.”

“We made a lot of mistakes this year”

Carlos Sainz continued, “We are, I think, doing a great job at this level, but it’s true that we made a lot of mistakes this year and we want to be a better team. But as I said, it doesn’t happen from year to year and we have to keep improving. I think (during) the second half of the season we were a little bit better in all areas. We just didn’t develop enough.”

What Ferrari needs to improve

He went on to elaborate on what he felt Ferrari needed to improve on next season.

“I think it’s very simple. I think we need to be better in the execution of the races, whether it’s the start or, for example, for me. This year we had a problem with an inherent problem with the car that didn’t allow us to start well.

“I had a clutch problem all weekend (in Abu Dhabi) and that cost me a position over Lewis (Hamilton), which meant I lost five or six seconds of race time in the crazy fight I had with him. The second point is obviously strategy, and setting the right targets and putting the right tyres on the car on Sunday.

“That is something we are working on for next year, and then there is development. If we want to beat Mercedes and Red Bull, we need to develop more than them.”

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