During winter testing, experts were optimistic about the speed of the new Ferrari car – and in the first race of the season, the team took pole position …
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal: “We were confident that we could perform successfully – and today we were able to confirm this. Both of our riders fought for pole, which speaks of the strength of the team, the speed of the car and the quality of the people who work every day – on the track and in Maranello.
Pole in Bahrain is a reward for our work, even more important when you remember where we were two years ago. We have always said that in order to defeat such strong opponents, you need perfection in everything, and this time the team did a great job. I have always been convinced that we have the best pair of riders – and today I was convinced of this again. ”
Charles Leclerc (1st): “We knew that our return to the group of leaders was only a matter of time. I want to thank the whole team for the hard work that allowed us to return Ferrari to the position that it should occupy.
We are very pleased with the result, but we are well aware that we must not relax – we need to achieve the maximum in everything, because our rivals are very strong.
This weekend we worked more on the fast lap, because the tests have accumulated a large amount of information about the behavior of the car on long series of circles with a lot of fuel. We needed to unleash the potential of the car in qualifying mode – and F1-75 responded very well to this.
The most difficult thing was to bring the tires into working mode, but everything worked out – and in the end I won the pole position. This is great!”
Carlos Science (3rd): “For me, the weekend was not easy, at least until qualifying, but today we performed well.
It’s great that until the last minute I had the opportunity to fight for pole position. In the course of qualifying, the intervals between the cars of the strongest teams were minimal, and I can’t say that I’m upset.
Congratulations to Charles on the pole position, and to the whole team that they have built a great car. A promising start to the season!”