‘Clear that Ferrari made good progress’ – Leclerc

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc says it feels good to start the season this way although he may not be ‘extremely happy’ with sixth place, but it is clear that Ferrari has made a good step forward compared to last season.

After finishing sixth in the 2020 constructors’ standings, Ferrari has heavily revised its SF21 car, which has more downforce and less air resistance, and the new powertrain has significantly more power.

Although team boss Mattia Binotto claimed in tests that they had solved the problem with a lack of speed on the straights, the first race definitely confirmed this fact because Ferrari qualified for 11th and 12th place on this track last year while Leclerc and Sainz this year started fourth and eighth.

Leclerc failed to retain fourth place against faster drivers from McLaren (Norris) and Red Bull (Perez), but he is pleased with the good start of the season which resulted in fourth place in the constructors’ standings behind McLaren.

“It’s a nice start and a good feeling and I am reasonably happy with the race today,” said Leclerc.

“I cannot be extremely satisfied with P6, but at the end of the day we need to look at where we were last year and it’s clear we have made good progress.”

“I had a very good start. I found myself in third place and managed my tyres quite well in the first stint. I think there was probably a bit more left in them, but we had to stop and try to push the others towards different strategies, which was the right thing to do, but it might have cost us a little bit in terms of pace at the end of the race.”

“All in all, it was a good race and a positive weekend and we made a good step forward compared to last season. We’re still not where we want to be, so we need to keep working and pushing very hard to get better in the coming races.”

“I think we had a solid first race today,” said Carlos Sainz.

“It was very important for me to complete all the laps and keep building experience with the car. Maybe that’s the reason why this time I didn’t take too many risks at the start and it cost me a couple of places.”

“I was curious to see how the car reacted in the dirty air of a race start and I knew I would have the opportunity to fight back once I got into my rhythm.”

“Once the race settled a bit, I started pushing lap by lap and I think we showed a very strong pace with the Medium tyre and especially with the Hard tyre during the last stint. I also managed to pull of some good overtakes.”

“Today I’m happy for the work we have been doing the entire weekend. Ferrari wants more. I want more. But it has been a promising start and we’ll keep pushing to get there.”

Binotto – ‘We stuggled a bit more in the race’

“That was a very intense race,” said Team Principal Mattia Binotto.

“It was the first of 23 stages of what will be a very long season and we must take each one as it comes, working calmly and with determination, just as we did this weekend.”

“In the race, we struggled a bit more than we had done in qualifying, but we acquired plenty of useful data that will allow us to understand where we must improve.
There’s a long way to go, but we will continue working to improve in all areas.”

“Now our attention turns to the next round in Imola, which is special for us given that, along with Monza, it is a home race for us.”