Binotto: 'Slightly better' Mercedes car has an edge over Ferrari

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says Mercedes' winning W10 is a "slightly better" car than its Scuderia counter-part, but the gap between the two contenders is small.

With four straight one-two finishes in the opening rounds of the 2019 season, Mercedes has already set itself up nicely for a sixth consecutive Constructors' title.

The German team has performed flawlessly since Melbourne although it admittedly lucked into a win in Bahrain where Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was in a league of his own until an engine failure sidelined the Monegasque.

In terms of raw speed, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has denied the manufacturer's W10 holds a clear advantage over its Italian opponent, and Binotto shares that opinion.

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"I think that, four races in the season, no win for Ferrari, four wins for Mercedes, no doubt that they are very strong, and certainly they've got, let me say, a slightly better car," Binotto said after Baku.

"But I think that the gap is not so big, and the points and the results are not reflecting the true potentials of the cars."

"I think that if you've got a car fast enough to score potentially the pole, you've got a good car overall.

"In the race, yes, we were not as fast as them, but we didn't finish 20 seconds behind, I think that Seb somehow at the end of the race was quite close, and if you look at the delta, laptime average, on the race, is significant but still little.

"I think it's something on which there is much to try to work and to close in in the near future."

Leclerc - who was comfortably fastest in practice in Baku before a crash in qualifying put him on the back foot on race day - is on the same page as his Ferrari boss.

"I completely agree with Mattia - I think in the car there was definitely the potential to do pole position and I threw all our chances away by touching the wall," said the 21-year-old.

"So it's my mistake, I take responsibility, and basically it [fifth place] was the best we could do from there.

"It's a bit disappointing, but on the other hand I think there are some positives to take away from the weekend.

"I think qualie pace was definitely stronger than China and race pace was also very close to Mercedes.

"So yeah, now we look forward and I'm pretty sure we'll come back even stronger in Barcelona."

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