Mattia Binotto responds to Ferrari ‘bad luck’ claim as Charles Leclerc’s frustration grows

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has indicated that it would not serve a purpose to make changes to his team at the moment after several calamitous moments in 2022.



Charles Leclerc won two of the opening three rounds of the season as Red Bull experienced reliability issues, but Max Verstappen won in Saudi Arabia in round two, and has added another seven to his tally since Melbourne.



However, that number might have been reduced had it not been for a mixture of reliability failures of Ferrari’s own, as well as mistakes from Leclerc and team-mate Carlos Sainz.



Most prominent of all though have been strategic mistakes; avoidable errors have been made on the pit wall this season, costing Leclerc and Sainz a number of race wins and podiums over the course of the year.







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The Monegasque was left bitterly disappointed in Monaco, Silverstone and Hungary due to bizarre calls that saw him finish off the podium, while Sainz has taken more authority over the radio, almost making his own strategies as the race went on.



The Spaniard, however, refuses to fall into the idea that his team are a “disaster,” despite himself losing what looked like a podium finish in France after several laps if indecision from the team.



When strategy has not been the culprit, reliability has played a huge factor in Spain, Azerbaijan and Austria, while both Leclerc and Sainz have been guilty of crashes this year – Sainz’s mistakes in Imola and Barcelona come to mind, while Leclerc put his car in the wall while leading in France.



Despite the mistakes, and the subsequent championship deficit to Verstappen and Red Bull, Binotto does not see the need to change anything ahead of the rest of the season.



“It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well,” he said.



“It’s always a matter of continuous learning and building, building experience, building skills.



“Certainly there is something that you need to look at and understand why, but if I look again at the balance of the first half of the season, there is no reason why we should change.



“I think we simply need to address what was wrong today, we need to understand, and then to address and get back competitive at the 12 races so far [before Hungary] and the reason why it could not be the case at the next one.” 



Verstappen leads Leclerc by 80 points in the Drivers’ Standings, while Sergio Perez has helped the Austrian side to a 97-point advantage over Ferrari in the Constructors’ Standings.




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Leclerc was sent down to sixth in Budapest having been leading the race by a strategic error as Verstappen won from 10 th  on the grid, symptomatic of the Italian side’s shortcomings while competing for the title this season.



However, Binotto believes his Monegasque driver, as well as the whole team, will come back from the summer break stronger.



“As a leader as he is [key] to continue building, building for the team and building for himself step by step, and I think to look at each single race as an opportunity to win,” added the Italian.



“We are winning and losing altogether, today it has not been a great one but I think there is still much potential and a lot of potential.



“We need to focus first to understand the reasons of today, address them, and come back even stronger.”



Since round three, Sainz has taken his maiden victory by winning in Silverstone, before Leclerc grabbed his third win of the year in Spielberg.
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