“We simply reduced the gap” : Ferrari contends their efficiency deficit to Red Bull is now ‘negligible’

Ferrari believes that a rear wing upgrade has successfully offset the efficiency disadvantage they had over the Red Bull cars earlier on in the season. After victories at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, the Maranello-based racing team is going for their third straight grand prix triumph at this weekend’s French Grand Prix.

According to Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto, since the team changed the shape of its rear wing, the difference in performance between the vehicles has narrowed. “I think in terms of pure speed [the cars are] very similar and qualifying is proving it. I don’t think there is much difference between the two cars,” said Binotto.

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Ferrari discusses their upgrades

According to Binotto, Ferrari outperformed Red Bull somewhat in Austria in terms of tyre deterioration. Reigning Formula One World Champion  Max Verstappen won the sprint race on Saturday, while Charles Leclerc finished second. According to him, Ferrari’s better tyre performance was “more evident” in the grand prix. “We started pushing, putting pressure on Max at the restart and forcing him to have more pace and more pace was more degrading the tyres. So I think what we saw in the sprint has been more obvious because we put more pressure on,” said Binotto.

According to Binotto, the team’s most important gap with its competitors has been closed by its most recent improvement. “We had a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull, no doubt, in terms of straight-line speed especially in DRS zones, so in terms of the power of the DRS compared to ours. We worked a lot on it, built a new rear wing that we introduced as first only on one example, which was on Charles’ [car] in Canada. We’ve had it on both cars since the UK and with that new rear wing,” added the Swiss team principal.

He thinks there isn’t much difference between the two teams right now. “We simply reduced the gap. We closed the gap, we had more speed. I think they’ve still got a slight advantage, but very little or negligible, it’s why in the power we are very close. Then it’s only about the grip limit in the cornering where we can make the difference,” concluded the team principal.

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