Toto Wolff doesn’t buy Mattia Binotto’s claim that Ferrari’s engine performance was reined in by FIA’s directives that impacted all teams equally.
Ferrari seemed to have found a lot more power on the straights at the midway point of the 2019 season, which resulted in other teams accusing them of cheating. After the FIA found some irregularities with Ferrari’s power units, the team’s performance quickly dropped off.
The whole issue was later swept under the rug in a “private settlement” with the FIA. Now Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto is claiming that the drop in performance was due to FIA’s technical directives that affected all teams equally. Wolff doesn’t buy that.
“Another complete bulls**t story, technical directives,” said the Austrian.
“There’s a clear regulation on power units. There have been clarifications in Austin, what is allowed to do or not, which were important, but nothing that was in any way surprising because if you comply to the regulations that was anyway clear.
“I think the irony of the story is that we were pushed by some of our competitors to absolutely new levels. It brought us to almost burnout last year, to develop and innovate in a way to be competitive on track.
“And here we go, I think we made a substantial jump in performance from 2019 to 2020. Because we needed to last year, and that is a little bit ironic for me.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
Wolff also hit out at Binotto’s public claims that Ferrari was ready to sign the new Concorde Agreement, which insinuated Mercedes was holding up the negotiations.
“I don’t know why some of the other teams made those ridiculous commentary, that they’re ready to sign and that it seems to be some competitors that are not,” Wolff said.
“They make themselves a laughing stock with those comments in the public. Negotiations should be taking place behind closed doors, without running commentary from competitors.
“And in that respect, we’re talking to Liberty, we are keen in staying in F1.
“There are some clauses which bother us a little bit, but nothing that can’t be solved.”
Source: motorsport.com
