“The Drivers Had No Confidence” – Mattia Binotto Believes Ferrari’s Woes Not Car Related

Ferrari F1’s dismal campaign took a turn for the worse (is that even possible?) during the practice sessions and qualifying ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. The Scuderia were horribly off the pace during all three practice sessions, not one of their cars finished better than P14, with their worst finish being Sebastian Vettel‘s P20 in FP3. A similar kind of showing was seen even during qualifying, where both cars dropped out of Q2. Team principal Mattia Binotto was understandably gutted with those results. However, interestingly, Binotto seemed to pin the blame, not on the cars, but instead on the drivers.

The Ferrari boss said (translated by Google), “Difficult situation, we are not happy. Nobody is, us and the fans. We have to understand and look ahead. We had difficulties in free practice, the drivers did not feel the car. This car is the same as in the last races, the problem is limited to this weekend. The drivers had no confidence, the situation on Friday compromised qualifying.

“There is something that is escaping us this weekend, I hope the technicians will understand it. We are two tenths from Q1, but it was not enough.”

Coming into the weekend, expectations were obviously not very high. However, nobody quite expected this level of struggle. It seems that Ferrari have found a new low. Where do they go from here? Surely they can’t do any worse.

Ferrari boss stresses on laying the foundations for the next two seasons

While Binotto is not yet ready to accept that the season is all but over for them, he revealed that their focus has shifted more towards 2021 and 2022. Binotto said, “Disappointment is important, but we need to understand what happened. We need patience, we are building for the future and focusing on 2021 and 2022.”

However, speaking of the race in Spa, Binotto still harbors hope that they can salvage something from it. “The race is tomorrow, let’s not give up an inch, the points are awarded. I believe that we can fight with those in front of us, we can overcome them.”

You wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility, but you could say that a top 10 finish for both the Ferrari cars seems unlikely. Binotto says that they are building for the future, but seeing the predicament the team is in, you’d seriously doubt if he would be involved in any of Ferrari’s future plans.