Mattia Binotto Responds to Mercedes-Red Bull Claims of Ferrari F1 Threat

Ferrari was the standout team at the pre-season testing in Barcelona. There were a lot of expectations from the Italian team heading into the testing last week. They had impressed everyone with the performance in 2021 and were touted as one of the contenders for the championship this season. Interestingly, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes Mercedes would bring in upgrades at the official testing in Bahrain.

Many teams are expected to bring upgrades to the pre-season testing in Bahrain. But Binotto revealed Mercedes would be ahead of everyone in terms of development before the start of the first race.

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Mattia Binotto believes Mercedes will be ahead of them in Bahrain

It is very difficult to judge the performance of the teams after the preseason testing. There are some reports that there is already a pecking order developing after the tests in Barcelona.

Many believe Ferrari is leading that pack going into the first race, including Lewis Hamilton. But Mattia believes that the world champions will bounce back before the first race of the season.

“I’m pretty sure that [Mercedes] will be two or three months ahead of us by the time we will be in Bahrain. So I think that it’s very difficult today to judge the performance and the relative competitiveness between the teams,” said Binotto.

“But what’s important for us was to collect data here, and I think we can be satisfied with the amount of laps we did, collecting data and again, and will be analyzed back at Maranello.

I heard that there will be rumors that our competitors will bring big updates and upgrades. So I’m more concerned myself, I think than Hamilton with ourselves,” said the Ferrari team boss.

It is difficult to predict who is ahead after the Barcelona test. Maybe we will have a clearer answer after the pre-season test in Bahrain.

Most insiders believe we might not get a pecking order before the first four races of the season. Let’s see what the Bahrain pre-season test brings for the teams.

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