Ferrari Hoping To ‘Simply Be Ahead’ Of Vettel In 2021

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Sebastian Vettel will join Aston Martin Racing for the 2021 Formula One season.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has said he believes Sebastian Vettel will be successful with Aston Martin Racing, but he hopes the Italian racing outfit will “simply be ahead” of the rebranded Racing Point team.

“As a driver, I think it’s great for Formula 1 that’s Seb’s still part of the line-ups next year because he’s still a four-time world champion and I think he’s a fantastic driver.

READ: Sebastian Vettel And Aston Martin Are Perfect For Each Other

“Will he do well in Aston Martin or Racing Point or whatever it is? I think yes, I hope he’s doing well, certainly. I think we can challenge him next year and hopefully we’ll simply be ahead,” Binotto said.

Separately, Mattia Binotto said Ferrari informed Vettel of their plans not to retain him beyond the 2020 Formula One season in a bid to help him find another seat.

“We are very happy for that conclusion. I think the fact that we told him our decision for next year very early in the season was really to give him all the chances to find a seat for 2021, so finally I’m very happy for him as a person.”

As for Ferrari’s worrying form this season, Binotto said he hopes that the Belgian and Italian Grand Prix will prove to be “outliers” for the Maranello-based team.

Ferrari is celebrating its 1000th F1 Grand Prix this weekend at Mugello.

To celebrate the occasion, they are running a special, one-off livery on both cars – and the SF1000 has looked more competitive around the Mugello circuit than at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza.

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“So we hope that here at least we can to our level of competitiveness at the start of the season, which is certainly not still great but at least we’re where we were before,” Binotto added.

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