After taking a fine pole position, Charles Leclerc was comfortably at the head of the Spanish Grand Prix before an engine problem forced him to retire. The Monegasque is therefore second in the championship now, behind Max Verstappen who won this weekend.

Such a result was always very disappointing for Scuderia Ferrari. And its director Mattia Binotto regrets the scenario of the weekend, which did not spare Carlos Sainz either.

“Obviously we’re not happy with the result this weekend. It’s disappointing that an engine problem deprived Charles of a well-deserved victory, especially because the Maranello team did a great job. to develop the engine for this season. Carlos finished fourth after coming back from a difficult situation. He probably doesn’t yet have the feeling he would like on board the F1-75, and it’s up to us make him feel more comfortable. He’s tenacious, he studies the situation and never gives up, so I’m sure he’ll soon be perfectly comfortable in the car.”

But failing to have won this weekend, Binotto prefers to see the glass half full while the developments made by Ferrari have clearly borne fruit.

“After such a result, I think we have to take the positive. I said that we would need six races to judge the hierarchy between the teams, and today we can say that we have integrated a good car and made good job developing it The Barcelona circuit is demanding in many ways, and generally not a good track for us, but the F1-75 was the fastest car on track on Saturday and Sunday, Charles was comfortably in the lead and his pace was very good.”

At least Charles Leclerc and Mattia Binotto won’t have to brood over this disappointment for too long: the Monaco Grand Prix will take place this weekend and the Italian leader sees the Scuderia capable of winning in the Principality.

“We will now try to pin down the problem that forced her to stop. Unfortunately, these things can happen to us or to others, but given the number of races left to run, I would say that we have demonstrated that we are able to fight for victory in the next Grands Prix, starting with Monaco. This will be Charles’ home race and I hope we will wait less than a week before our next victory.”