Ferrari ‘encouraged’ by recent performances

Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto has been buoyed by their recent performances and says plans for 2020 are taking shape. The Maranello-based outfit struggled for form in the first half of the campaign and had to wait until the Belgian Grand Prix on September 1 to win their first race. Charles Leclerc earned that victory after the summer break and went on to add a second win on his next appearance at the Italian Grand Prix. Ferrari won three in a row with Sebastian Vettel taking the chequered flag in Singapore as Leclerc came home second. It signalled an improvement in fortunes for the Scuderia but wasn’t enough to prevent Mercedes from lifting their sixth successive Constructors’ Championship. With just three races left to go, Ferrari have little to fight for but Binotto insists the final weeks of the season can help in planning for next season. “We have started the last six races from pole position but have only gone on to win three of them and we certainly want to do better than that,” he said. “We are encouraged by the fact that we now have a package that allows us to fight for wins on most tracks. “It’s a significant improvement on how we started the year and credit must go to all the people in Maranello and at the track, who have worked so hard to fight back from where we started.” He added: “We need to use the last three races of this season to further develop as a group and to operate in the sharpest possible manner in order to be better prepared for next year. “It is a very tight field at the front and every detail matters if we want to win more often.”