"I don’t think there is much difference between the two cars"- Red Bull enjoying 'very little or negligible' advantage over Ferrari at the moment, says Mattio Binotto

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto recently admitted that the team's new rear wing update has effectively shrunk the gap to Red Bull in terms of car performance and pace.

As reported by RaceFans, the Italian emphasized that Ferrari has been successful in putting pressure on Max Verstappen, who seemed fairly dominant in several races early on in the season. He said:

“I think in terms of pure speed [the cars are] very similar and quali is proving it. I don’t think there is much difference between the two cars.”

He continued:

“We started pushing, putting pressure on Max [Verstappen] at the restart and forcing him to have more pace and more pace was more degrading the tyres. So I think what we saw in the sprint has been more obvious because we put more pressure on.”

He added:

“We had a disadvantage compared to the Red Bull, no doubt, in terms of straight-line speed especially in DRS zones, so in terms of the power of the DRS compared to ours. We worked a lot on it, built a new rear wing that we introduced as first only on one example, which was on Charles’ [car] in Canada. We’ve had it on both cars since the UK and with that new rear wing.”

Ferrari has managed to secure two back-to-back wins over the last double-header at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring. Despite this, the Milton Keynes-based team still enjoys a 56-point lead over the Prancing Horse.

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Carlos Sainz confident about the second half of the season despite Ferrari's DNFs

Carlos Sainz, who once again missed out on significant points at the Austrian GP after his Ferrari engine caught fire, seems to have a positive mindset going into the second half of the 2022 season.

Admitting that he has a record of a more positive second half of the season over the past few years, as reported by The SportsRush, he said:

“I say let’s see at the end of the year. I think it’s still early. It was early when I finished P2 [at the season opener] in Bahrain and everyone said it’s going to be an easy walk in the park for Ferrari. I said it when I was in my low moment in Barcelona after the spin in the race, and I say it now: it’s too early still to tell and to say.”

He further said:

“I understand people that say [I’m not the championship-challenging Ferrari driver], because it hasn’t been my easiest start of the season. But if you look closely to my last four or five seasons in F1, I’ve always peaked in the second half and I’ve always done a very strong second half, so let’s wait and see.”

After a frustrating weekend in Austria, Sainz remains fourth in the Driver Standings, but with a mere five-point advantage over George Russell.