Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto says there is ‘nothing to change’ at Scuderia this summer despite strategy calls
Charles Leclerc plummeted down the order at the Hungarian Grand Prix after some questionable strategy calls from the Ferrari pit wall
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Your support makes all the difference.Mattia Binotto insists there is no need to change anything at Ferrari this summer despite Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix again being overshadowed by some questionable strategy calls on the Scuderia pit wall.
Ferrari’s Championship hopeful Charles Leclerc qualified in third place and led halfway through the race, but finished down in sixth after switching bizarrely to the hard compound tyre.
Leclerc struggled to extract performance from the tyre - which had shown signs of discomfort for the Alpines - and having been twice overtaken by Max Verstappen, the Monegasque was forced to pit again and had to settle for sixth spot.
Carlos Sainz, who qualified on the front row in second, also finished off the podium in fourth as he couldn’t compete with the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the latter stages of the race.
Hungary follows unclear strategy calls in Monaco and Silverstone so far this season for Ferrari too, alongside reliability problems, but Binotto believes his team did not have the pace to win at the Hungaroring regardless of any strategy calls.
“It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well,” Binotto said after the race in Budapest. “It’s always a matter of continuous learning and building, building experience, building skills.
“Today [Sunday], certainly there is something that you need to look at and understand why. But if I look again at the balance of the first half of the season, there is no reason why we should change.
“I think we simply need to address what was wrong today, we need to understand, and then to address and get back competitive at the 12 races so far [before Hungary] and the reason why it could not be the case at the next one.”
Ferrari are now 97 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship - with Mercedes only 30 points behind in third - while Leclerc is 80 points behind Drivers Championship leader Verstappen.
“As a leader as he [Leclerc] is [key] to continue building, building for the team and building for himself step by step, and I think to look at each single race as an opportunity to win,” Binotto added.
“We are winning and losing altogether. Today it has not been a great one but I think there is still much potential and a lot of potential. We need to focus first to understand the reasons of today, address them, and come back even stronger.”
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