After the finish of the British Grand Prix, the victory which went to Carlos Sainz, Mattia Binotto commented on the actions of the Ferrari team, which actually helped one of its riders, while acting to the detriment of another.
Q: Congratulations on another win! But still, I want to start by talking about the Charles Leclerc race: it seemed that today he was faster than his partner, and after you asked your riders to switch positions on lap 31, he was able to create a gap of 4.6 seconds. And then the safety car drove onto the track, and I want to ask: why didn’t you call Charles into the pits at that moment and didn’t make a double pit stop?
Mattia Binotto: We thought that there would not be enough space in the pits for two cars at once, we were sure of this, so we had to choose which car to invite – the one that goes in the first position, or the one in the second? We decided to call Carlos for a pit stop, because Charles was in the lead at that moment, and we did not know how the rivals would act if we called him.
It was clear to us that not Charles, but Carlos should be called to the pits. But we hoped that then the intensive degradation of soft rubber would begin, but this did not happen.
Question: After the finish, you talked about something with Charles. It is understandable that he is upset, because he expected to win the race. What did you say to him? So that he refrains from public comments on this topic and only says the right things in interviews? Did you promise that you would sort everything out within the team?
Mattia Binotto: No, there is nothing to discuss behind closed doors, I just said that I understand his frustration. He had a great race, fought at the start, fought later, when everyone was riding on soft tires, and he was on Hard. In my opinion, Charles piloted well, defended well, and although he, of course, has no reason to be happy, now it is important to remain calm and positive.
Question: Carlos was waiting for his first victory of 150 races, yesterday he took pole position, and although it seemed that his partner was faster than him in the race, after the restart, when it really mattered, he acted flawlessly and achieved success …
Mattia Binotto: In my opinion, this speaks of the strengths of Carlos, agree? He tries all the time to be ahead, waiting for a chance for him, because it was the same in yesterday’s qualifying, when the opponents may have made small mistakes. And he drove a circle at a steady pace and took pole.
Stability is his forte. He fights to the end, and when the opportunity arises, Carlos always takes it. I am very happy for him, because this is his first victory, which is very important for a driver, and since he won the race with Ferrari, this further increases the significance of the achievement. I think it’s a well-deserved success.
Q: It seems that not only Ferrari and Red Bull are now involved in the dispute for victories, but also Mercedes. Are you satisfied with the performance of your car this weekend, its speed and efficiency?
Mattia Binotto: We are glad that Mercedes are competitive again…
Question: Are you sincerely happy about this?
Mattia Binotto: Of course, first of all because it’s good for the championship. Secondly, they take away points from our direct rivals. But I’m not sure if their car will be consistently competitive, because they lost quite a lot in yesterday’s qualifying. Let’s see how they do in the next races.
Definitely, they put a lot of effort, trying to modify the car and eliminate the problems that they encountered, and spend a lot of money on it. But it looks like their efforts are paying off.