Ferrari F1 boss Mattia Binotto was quite pleased with the end result yesterday in Jeddah, although he would have preferred the fight to ultimately turn in favor of his driver Charles Leclerc for victory over Max Verstappen .
But the Italian had two notable points of dissatisfaction after the race in Saudi Arabia, both of which concern the FIA.
Like Carlos Sainz (to read here), he does not understand why the FIA did not ask that Perez resume his place behind the Spaniard during the safety car, for sporting fairness at the restart.
“We got into radio communication with the race director as soon as possible, told him to check the safety car line because we think we were a few tenths ahead.
“It took them a bit too long I think to decide and give that to the stewards and finally they made the decision when the safety car came to an end, and it was too late before the restart.
“It’s not a blame, but I think it’s those kinds of decisions that we need to speed up because it was obvious and simple and it could have been done differently.”
“It would have been important to do otherwise. It would have been much fairer and more equitable to swap the position before the restart, because it was the right position to have, and for the battle on the restart as well.”
Binotto’s other point of dissatisfaction concerns Max Verstappen’s pit stop, which started right under Carlos Sainz’s nose during the safety car period.
“I’m sorry, but if Carlos doesn’t slow down he lands on Max. I don’t know why they didn’t penalize him.”
“It’s all those little moments that can ultimately decide the race. That said, it was a spectacular race. Everyone rode very well and we managed to score 78 points out of 88 in two races.”
Did Ferrari make the wrong choice in Jeddah with its fins? Binotto admits that this is part of the analysis to be carried out after the race.
“Max was on a slightly higher downforce level on Friday and then reduced it. We decided ourselves to stay at a higher downforce level as we thought it was important for the degradation of tyres. But in the end, in the race, the degradation of the tires was very low.”
“I think their choice somehow deserves some analysis on our part. But overall it’s still a compromise. It’s just a matter of details and good decisions that can decide the race to the end.”