F1 | Ferrari, Binotto on the comparison with McLaren in Austin: "We were significantly faster"

Ferrari left the trip to Austin with fourth place for Charles Leclerc and eighth for Carlos Sainz. The SF21, on a track that on paper did not give it the advantage over McLaren, managed to obtain more points than the Woking duo Ricciardo-Norris which allowed Maranello to move to just 3.5 points from third place in the constructors' championship occupied by the English team. TP Mattia Binotto focused on the Texan performance, underlining the superiority of the Red compared to the MCL35M.

"McLaren has always been very competitive in the medium and high speed corners this season. But if I look at the overall performance this weekend, we were ahead of them – declared Binotto, quoted by Formula1.com – This was evident already in qualifying and Charles gave 25 seconds to Ricciardo in the race. Overall they were significantly faster this weekend. I think it's a shame that Carlos wasn't up front with Charles. Motor? If we look at last year, it's really a big step forward. We still know that today there is a gap to the best engine, but we believe that that gap is not that worrying".

Binotto, completing his analysis, added: “On paper COTA wasn't a circuit that suited our car, so I'm happy with the progress we've seen in the last few races. Certainly supported by the power unit in qualifying and in the race, this gives me confidence for the next races too".