Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has admitted that he has concerns over the success of Red Bull's recent performance upgrades, but is confident in the Scuderia's own planned updates for the upcoming races. Max Verstappen became the first driver to score back-to-back wins in 2022 when he passed and held off Charles Leclerc in the Miami Grand Prix. The Dutchman did so with his RB18 seemingly much-improved, both in terms of pace and reliability, from the car with which he started the season. Red Bull now boast a top-end speed that Ferrari appear unable to compete with, and have been kinder to their tyres than their rivals during recent races. But Binotto is optimistic that Verstappen's team have now spent a larger portion of their budget cap total to deliver those vital upgrades, leaving Ferrari in a prime position to fight back.
Ferrari expecting Red Bull to stall on upgrades
The Ferrari boss has suggested that he "will not understand" it should Red Bull continue to bring upgrades, having already spent cash to fix their early-season problems. Speaking to select members of the media, including RacingNews365.com , Binotto said: "At first, I always said that we should wait five races, at least, to assess the proper competitiveness between the cars. "Now five races have gone and we are leading both championships, which is great, so we should not be too disappointed – but it is true that Red Bull improved their car since the very start of the season. "They (Red Bull) have introduced upgrades and, if I look at the last two races, maybe they've gone a couple of tenths per lap faster than us. "It's no doubt that, in order to keep the pace, we need to develop ourselves, including upgrades. "I hope, because there is a budget cap, that at some stage Red Bull will stop developing, otherwise I think I will not understand how they can do that."
Binotto teases: We have an important package ready
The first step of Ferrari's fightback will come next time out in Barcelona, where the team will bolt-on big upgrades of their own. "In the next races, it will be our turn to try to develop as much as we can by introducing upgrades," Binotto continued. "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 that the package that we're introducing works as expected and, in that case, it can be a good boost in order to try to catch up. "I don't think that the differences are huge: it's at maximum a couple of tenths during the race, and we should not forget that, [on Saturday], we locked the front [row]. "In the quali[fying], we had a better complete performance compared to the Red Bull so, overall, in a weekend, I don't think that there is much difference between the Red Bull and the Ferrari."
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