Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admitted Ferrari were not able to run their cars at maximum power during the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix, one of many reasons why their race was difficult.
The legendary Formula 1 team was nowhere near the performance level they have showed this season, slow in qualifying and anonymous throughout a race where Red Bull and Mercedes took center stage.
As a result, Carlos Sainz finished fifth ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc who was sixth, as both drivers lamented a t tough day in the office.
Sainz said: "Today we did everything we could to get the best result possible, but unfortunately the pace was not there, so P5 was the maximum we could aim for.
"From my side, despite the overall picture, I had a good race and the feeling inside the car was positive this weekend," he added, and concluded: "We will try to build on that ahead of Brazil and make sure we are ready for the last two races."
Leclerc added: "It was a lonely race. Carlos and I were lapping together, too quick for the midfield but too slow for the front runners.
"We stuck to our strategy, focused on ourselves and got the most out of our package, but we were just too far off and we have to understand why so that we can work on being more consistent.
"As always, it was amazing to see so many fans around the track in Mexico City and to feel their passion," the Monegasque ended.
A difficult weekend
Mattia Binotto reflected on what his drivers said and the Scuderia's disappointment as they leave Mexico City; he said: "It has been certainly a very difficult weekend.
"It has been already yesterday in qualifying quite behind the pole position but normally in the qualifying we are quite competitive. Today in the race, it has simply emphasized the fact that we were not comfortable with the track this week and our overall performance has not been great," he explained.
With Ferrari's lack of pace pointed out to him by the media; Binotto responded: "No doubt, as you said, of the pace in the race today. The compromise in terms of power unit, we were not at our best performance for the weekend .
"I don't think that it needs explaining. That's part of the equation. There is more than that. There is certainly more than that. It’s something which we need to look at and there is not a clear answer right now. So, the ride was not great. The balance was not great.
"I'm pretty sure if I'm listening at the drivers later on in the debriefing, they will tell me that the car was not turning and the reason why. It has to be looked at and we have not a clear explanation right now," the Ferrari boss expected.
Small turbos meant the engines had to be turned down
Ferrari's power unit problem goes down to the fact the turbos - theirs are small by design - have to work harder to get air into the engines on a track like the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez located 2.2km above sea level, making the air quite thin.
Ferrari ran their power units in conservative settings afraid from failures in these extreme operating conditions; as Binotto revealed: "We were running maximum downforce at the end. We tried to reduce it on FP2, but then we went back on to the maximum downforce so we didn't try to mitigate by downforce level.
"It's as well that in terms of turbo, maybe a little turbo, but yes, we are not as efficient. Ferrari didn't have the capacity at least to run maximum power here," he admitted.
"Charles and Carlos did the best they could and the way they tackled the first few corners after the start was exemplary," the Swiss-born Italian concluded crediting both his drivers. (Additional reporting by Agnes Carlier)
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