Ferrari is not expecting to be able to maintain its front-running pace at all remaining rounds of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
The Scuderia has hit upon a rich vein of form in recent events, with podium results at the Hungarian and British Grands Prix for Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc respectively.
Leclerc only narrowly missed out on victory in Silverstone when a resurgent Lewis Hamilton ran him down in the closing stages, overcoming a 10-second penalty in the process.
In May, the Monegasque took pole position around his home streets, only to crash at the end of qualifying an ultimately fail to start the race.
Sainz duly delivered a second-place finish in a race Ferrari had a realistic shot at winning.
However, while the team’s form has been on the up as the season has worn on, Mattia Binotto warns against expecting that same level of performance every weekend.
“I don’t think it would be the case,” the Ferrari team boss said when asked if Ferrari were not contenders at every circuit.
“I think that the car has progressed since last year, but we got still gaps compared to our main competitors, which is not a single gap – gaps in various areas; power unit, aero efficiency, medium-highspeed downforce.
“So that I think there are tracks like Belgium, where I’m pretty we will be lacking speed, and that’s somehow normal.”
Ferrari endured a torrid weekend at the French Grand Prix, with neither of its pilots capable of scoring a point.
With the exception of Sainz’s 11th place finish in Portugal, a result one can write off as part of his adjustment period with the Scuderia, both cars have seen the points every time they’ve finished a race.
A new spec engine is also set to arrive later in the season, with the team understood to have carried components from last year’s powerunit to this point.
“We will bring power unit developments,” Binotto confirmed.
“Just to clarify what the regulations are in 2021, you may have a brand new power unit in 2021.
“It means that you may bring an update in all the components of the power unit, whatever it is ICE (internal combustion engine), turbo, MGU-H, batteries, MGU-K, etcetera
“What we did at the start of the season, we didn’t complete the entire power unit, so there are still components which are the ones of last year.
“We will bring an evolution of those ones, so I think that will be for us a significant step for the end of the season.”
Those developments are not expected to arrive in time for the Belgian or Italian Grands Prix, circuits which would otherwise benefit from increased power.
Formula 1 returns from the summer break on August 27-29 with the Belgian Grand Prix.
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