Ferrari determined to respond to Red Bull resurgence in form: ‘We now need to respond’

The Scuderia put both drivers on the podium, but a win for Max Verstappen has handed Red Bull a boost

Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari talks with team principal Mattia Binotto (EPA)

Ferrari “now need to respond” according to team boss Mattia Binotto after Max Verstappen’s victory at the Miami Grand Prix narrowed the gap to Driver’s Championship leader Charles Leclerc.

The Scuderia have enjoyed a fine start to the season, but the world champion’s win last weekend pushes Red Bull to within six points of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship, while narrowing the gap to Leclerc to just 19 points.

Binotto is philosophical about his team’s performance, with both Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the podium again, though he concedes the team “can’t be completely happy”.

“We can’t be completely happy with today’s race because, although the F1-75 was competitive, our rivals were a few tenths per lap quicker than us,” Binotto said. “If you consider how many points we are taking home from here, we can’t be too disappointed, given that we are leading both championships, but it’s clear we now need to respond. We are keen to get the job done and there are still a lot of races to go.

“It’s true that Red Bull improved their car, improved it since the very start of the season. If I looked at the last two races, maybe they got a couple of tenths per lap faster to us. It’s no doubt that in order to keep the pace we will need to develop ourselves with new upgrades.”

Binotto remains bullish about the Scuderia’s chances of delivering an improvement at the Spanish Grand Prix next week.

“I hope because there is a budget cap that at some stage Red Bull will stop developing, otherwise I would not understand how they can do that – but let’s see in the next races,” added the Italian. “It could be at least our turn to try to develop as much as we can the car by introducing upgrades, and I think it’s not a surprise that we may have a package in Barcelona, which will be important for us.

“As usual, I hope the package we are introducing is working as expected and in that case, it can be a good boost in order to try and catch up the current gap we’ve got to the Red Bull.”