British Grand Prix – Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto says the layout of the Silverstone circuit won’t play to the strengths of their car.
Ferrari head to Silverstone as the only one of the three ‘big teams’ yet to score a win in 2019, after Red Bull’s victory in Austria with Max Verstappen. Last year, Silverstone played host to one of the most thrilling races of the year as Sebastian Vettel stormed to victory by swooping past Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages in a thrilling Ferrari vs. Mercedes dogfight.
However, even on that occasion there was a sense that Mercedes had the quicker car and it was only a Lap 1 spin for Lewis Hamilton that prevented him from taking a comfortable victory. Despite his spin, caused by contact with Kimi Raikkonen at Turn 3, Hamilton wasn’t far behind at the chequered flag.
In 2019, Ferrari haven’t been as competitive as they were in 2018, and team boss Mattia Binotto says that Silverstone is unlikely to be the venue at which their fortunes turn around: “Silverstone is one of the toughest tracks of the season, providing a real test of a car’s set-up and balance. Tyres also come under a lot of strain here and the amount they wear plays a key role in how your race pans out.”
“We do not expect Silverstone to suit our car particularly well, but at every race, we have seen that the balance of power can change, often unexpectedly.”
However, with the team consistently adding new parts and updates onto their car, Binotto confirmed further aerodynamic updates for the SF90 this weekend: “For the British Grand Prix we are bringing a further small aerodynamic modification as we continue to push hard on the development of our car.”
“The weekend will also be an opportunity to increase our understanding of the recent work we did, which has seen us close the gap to our competitors on specific types of track.”
