Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto insists its pre-season testing showing w⭕as a “true” reflection of the current performance of its 2020 Formula 1 car.

Unlike in previous years, Ferrari largely stayed away from the top of the timesheets during pre-season testing at Barcelona and instead used the six days to get a better understanding of its latest challenger🍷, the SF1000.

Ferrari cꦫonceded after testing that it expected 🌳to start the season behind its closest rivals Mercedes, with the reigning world champion squad enjoying another strong winter programme barring some reliability concerns.

“We have analysed the data, I don’t think there is anything wrong in terms of correlation. That’s the true performance of the car,” Binotto told ♌ꦍthe official Formula 1 website.

“Where will be compared to the o🥀thers? Barcelona is always testing, you need to wait for the first th🥀ree races to understand where you are.

“It’s im✤portant for us as a team to continue progressing, to have solid race weekends, from the team, driver and reliability point of view.”

Speaking about the performance of Merce💟des throu🍸ghout testing, Binotto added: “They did a great job, so we need to recognise what they did.

“On our side, we steered the direction of our proje🅘ct into a different direction compared to the past.

“Normally when you do that, you may lose initially some ground but hopefully🔯 that will give♚ some more potential development for the future.”

While Ferrari has now lost some of its straight-line speed advantage due to the ౠpursuit of adding more downforce to its 2020 car, Binotto expects the Scuderia to boast a stronger thr🌳eat in race-trim this year.

“We have been a lot faster through the corners compared to last year,” 👍he explained.

“So the car is doing w🍒hat we are expecting, being faster in the corners, but w𒆙e’re slower on the straights.

“I think we believe that having more downforꦯce should help us not only on a single lap but 🧸also in the race, like in tyre management and tyre wear.

“If I think of the race simulations we did, compared to single laps performance, we have been stronger on the longer stints. That’s 🔴the benefit of more downforce.”