Mercedes is 'the way Ferrari was last year', says Mattia Binotto

After Mercedes' impressive comeback at the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto compared their season to that of Ferrari from last year. The Prancing Horse started the 2021 season on the back foot and managed to pick up in performance after the first couple of races. While the team was not in contention for a world championship title, they managed to secure third in the standings, ahead of McLaren.

As reported by RacingNews365, Binotto congratulated Mercedes for their improved pace and performance at the Spanish GP and said:

“Firstly, congratulations are to them, because they have recovered and they have improved the speed of their car. They were seven-tenths slower in qualifying and in the race they finished 30 seconds or more off the Red Bull. It could have been 40 seconds on Charles [Leclerc]. 40 seconds over 66 laps is still six or seven-tenths a lap and that is still significant. That’s how Ferrari was last year.”

The Silver Arrows managed to secure their second podium of the season with a third-place finish for George Russell and a strong P5 for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. This marks their best team result of the season after the Bahrain GP.

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Mercedes believe Lewis Hamilton could have won the Spanish Grand Prix

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff revealed that Lewis Hamilton could have secured his first race win of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix had he not made contact with Kevin Magnussen and fallen to the back of the grid at the start of the race.

As reported by f1.com, the Austrian admitted that he was glad to have not retired Hamilton after the incident, saying

“I’m happy that we didn’t retire Lewis [Hamilton], as that was the most valuable race for us to compare the two cars, to compare set-ups, and tyres. It’s always the call when you’ve basically lost the race to decide: what’s the benefit of continuing. But as a driver’s perspective you’re like, ‘That can’t be possible, I’m 50 seconds behind the leaders.’ But it’s still valuable mileage, we are never giving up anyway. At the end, his [Hamilton’s] race pace was stunning. He would have raced for the win.”

Praising George Russell for his defense against both Red Bulls, he added, saying:

“His defence was unbelievable, how he positioned the car, defending and then [holding him up] around the apex of Turn 2 so he couldn’t make the inside for Turn 4. He’s always in the right spot on the track with a car that at that stage was more than half a second slower. So, I’m really happy to see him racing like this. We have two unbelievable drivers. It’s the right guys to sort our car and go back to the front.”

Mercedes now stand third in the constructors' standings with a total of 120 points.