Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has responded to 2016 Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg’s comments that F2 and F3 teams are better at pitstops than the Italian outfit.
Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix provided Ferrari with its latest setback of its troubled season when it pitted Carlos Sainz for his first scheduled pitstop only to not have all of his tyres ready.
Sainz’s race would unravel further when he was released from his pitbox into the path of Fernando Alonso, earning the Spaniard a five-second time penalty.
The pitstop calamity has left Ferrari facing more criticism heading to its home race at Monza, as its error-prone season leaves it needing a miracle to overturn its points deficit to Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Rosberg, who was working for Sky Sports F1 as a pundit during the Zandvoort weekend, criticised Ferrari’s mistakes during the race, suggesting teams in F1’s feeder series’ do a “better job at their strategies and pitstops than Ferrari”.
When Rosberg’s comments were put to him, Binotto hit back at the former Mercedes driver, believing it was “easy to criticise” from the outside.
“First, I think it is so easy to speak when you are outside [of the paddock]. It is easy to criticise,” Binotto said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“But we will not change people: that is my answer to Rosberg. We have got great people and it has been proven that what is more important in sport is stability and that we make sure we are improving day-by-day and race-by-race.
“We have got great people in the team and I have no doubt on that. It takes years and experience for all teams to be at the front, and I think there is no reason why it should be different for ourselves.”
Binotto explained Ferrari’s late call to pit Sainz ultimately led to the mistake during the pitstop, claiming it wanted to react to avoid being undercut by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
“Yes it was a very late call to react to Lewis [Hamilton] with Carlos [Sainz]. It was too late a call,” he said.
“But I know as he [Rosberg] should know as well because he is an experienced driver, that it is a lot easier to address those type of problems rather than the performance.
“The performance is what counts the most today in my view.”
Comments.
Loading comments…