Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has fired a thinly veiled jibe at Sebastian Vettel, who departed the Scuderia at the end of 2020, saying the team can now “count on both” of their drivers.
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Carlos Sainz replaced Vettel at Ferrari, and the Spaniard finished his first race with the team in eighth position, two places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Meanwhile, Vettel finished his Aston Martin debut in P15 after starting from the back of the grid and getting slapped with a 10-second time penalty in the race for crashing into the back of Esteban Ocon.
Speaking after the race, Binotto said he was satisfied with how both of the team’s drivers performed in Bahrain and took the opportunity to fire a thinly veiled jibe at Vettel, who had a miserable final season with Ferrari.
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“Certainly we had a better result today then the whole last season even though we still have a long road to go,” Binotto said.
“We are going to use important data and info from this race and we will work on them.
“I am also happy with our two drivers. Finally we can count on both. Carlos had a good pace; the same can be said for Charles.
“We are united to improve, and the information we are taking will be used on next races as well,” he added.
Continuing, Binotto said that while they are focused on 2022, when the new technical regulations will come into effect, they do have some updates planned for their 2021 challenger.
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