"Binotto expects Ferrari fans to get excited over false data"

Indeed, Ferrari under Binotto's watch are lost at sea on just about all fronts and can be thankful that Italy are winning in other sports such as Euro football and the Olympics (100 metres!) hence taking the pressure off their other national team: The Scuderia.

But not everyone in Italy is being hoodwinked, Granato is clearly incensed with Binotto-style leadership, and wrote in his recent column: "Of course it is sometimes difficult to find the words to comment on the statements made by the current Ferrari Team Principal.

"Now Mattia Binotto tries a little too optimistic confidence injection and calculates in a simplistic way the recovery task, according to him, from Ferrari in this F1 season."

The writer quotes Binotto explaining the deficit between the Reds and the pacesetters after the Hungarian Grand Prix, at Hungaroring: “If we take the average of the entire 2020 season we were 1.4 seconds from pole, today we are 0.7s.

"This still represents a considerable distance, we are fully aware of it but, in any case, we have halved the gap from the best. An encouraging fact because it tells us that the direction taken is certainly the right one.

"This improvement is not the result of the work carried out by a single area but is part of a complex in which the aerodynamics department, power unit and general vehicle management certainly participated.

"At the moment I don't see us lacking in a single sector, to be lacking would mean having to recover on a single front, which would mean being in the worst possible condition," was the 'explanation' by Binotto.

A fired-up Granato wrote of Binotto's summary: "If we want to calculate the performances with a mathematical average, when the performances have been so absolutely irregular, going from a front row in Monaco to a drubbing at other tracks.

"I believe that if we obtained the real data we would see this Binotto's data is untrue.

"If this is for grabbing headlines or satisfy those on TV... I understand… But that's not how it works in F1. Of course, there has been an undeniable recovery. It is also true, however, that the top performers will not be able to open a gap at the top as they did before.

"And it is also certain that doing worse than last year is very difficult. God forbid had 2021 not been better than last year.

"To be clear: We certainly couldn't expect a Ferrari to win or beat Mercedes and Red Bull this year. God forbid again! However, do not expect us to masturbate over false and unrealistic average data either," was Granato's closing salvo.

Binotto has long ago run out of excuses as he powers Ferrari down the drain, his only hope - one imagines - is that the 2022 F1 car is a winner out of the box because such serial mediocrity can no longer be camouflaged and the mounting anger of the long-suffering Tifosi is at boiling point. Ask Granato!