Ferrari’s Mattia Binotto believes that there is no clear trend or correlation in this year’s championship battle between Mercedes and Ferrari as the 2017 Season moves into its second half.
Mattia Binotto: There is no “clear trend” in the Ferrari/Mercedes battle
With nine races remaining of this season, Mercedes leads the Constructors’ Championship by 39 points from Ferrari, and it is clear that the strength of both teams is varying from circuit to circuit. Ferrari started the season strongly with wins in Australia, Bahrain and Monaco. After Monaco however, it appeared that the championship shifted into the favour of Mercedes, with the Silver Arrows securing 1-2 finishes at the Canadian and British Grand Prix along with another win at Austria. The Hungarian Grand Prix proved that Ferrari had not fallen behind however, with Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen across the line to secure a 1-2 finish.
“I think each race is different to the others,” said Binotto. “There were races at the start of the season where we were competitive and others where Mercedes has been competitive. So I don’t think there is a clear trend in the competitiveness of the two teams.”
Recently, reigning world champion Nico Rosberg revealed that he believed that the remainder of the season would be a straight development race between Mercedes and Ferrari. Binotto agreed with this statement.
“Certainly the development is very important. That has to be done race by race,” he said. “There are still many races to go, we are at just half of the season and I don’t see any reasons why the trend needs to be for one [team] or the other.”
When F1 returns after the summer break, the field will head to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix – a circuit that is expected to benefit Mercedes over Ferrari due to the high speed nature of the circuit. After that the circus will head to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix which is the home race of the Scuderia and a race that Ferrari will want to win.
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