Binotto plays down Mercedes revival: ‘They’ve developed their car more than us'

Mercedes are now just 40 points behind Ferrari in the race for second in the F1 constructors’ standings with two rounds to go.

Ferrari enjoyed a significant performance advantage over Mercedes up until the summer break but have struggled since Spa.

• Binotto: Mercedes’ strategy calls show not only Ferrari make mistakes

The Italian manufacturer endured their worst weekend of the year at the F1 Mexico City Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz finishing over 40 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen.

On the other hand, Mercedes were Red Bull’s nearest challengers in Austin and Mexico, with Lewis Hamilton potentially challenging for the victory on both occasions had he been put on a better strategy.

Speaking after the race in Mexico, Binotto insists he’s not concerned by Mercedes’ mini-resurgence due to the differences in car development this season.

“Mercedes is coming back,” Binotto said. “They have developed more on the car than we did. We know as well we stopped the development of our car quite early, focusing on 2023.

“So I’m not too concerned by the rate of development because I know as well when we stopped developing.”

Ferrari haven’t won a race since the Austrian Grand Prix back in July, while Red Bull have taken nine wins since then.

Assessing recent races, Binotto added: “Certainly, if I look at the last races, it has not always been great but in Singapore, I think we were very competitive. The one after, Japan, it was in the wet. Yes, we were not as fast as Max but it was not a drama, and certainly not in qualifying.

• What was behind Ferrari’s horror showing in Mexico?

“In Austin, in quali, we were competitive but not as much as we would have expected in the race. [In Mexico], it was a lot worse. I don’t think it is the same trend because Singapore, competitive; Japan, not too bad; USA, good quali. So it was a lot more difficult.

“I am hoping this is not a trend but it was a [bad] weekend for us, so the job is to first try to analyse what is going on and what has been the main and try to be back competitive for what is our level of competitiveness, at least for the last two races. We certainly hope to be there and fight for a better result."