Ferrari clarifies 'misunderstood' Binotto quit threat comments

Ferrari has released a statement in which it clarifies comments made by Mattia Binotto regarding a potential exit of the Scuderia from F1 if next year's budget cap is lowered any further.

In an interview with The Guardian, Binotto was queried on Ferrari's opposition to a 2021 cost cap that would be lowered under the current unanimously agreed $150M level.

"If it was to get even lower, we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at other further options for deploying our racing DNA," said Binotto.

The comment clearly alludes to the possibility of Ferrari turning its back on F1 if a lowered budget cap level is decided by F1.

• Ferrari revives F1 quit threats amid budget cap talks!

Yet, the Italian manufacturer insists Binotto's words were wrongly interpreted.

"We would like to clarify what Mattia said in his interview with The Guardian published yesterday night," Ferrari said in a statement.

"He never mentioned about Scuderia Ferrari quitting F1, on the contrary, he said that we would not want to be put in a position of having to look at further options, besides continuing racing in F1, for deploying our racing DNA, in case the budget cap would be even more drastically reduced, putting at risk hundreds of workplaces.

"The misunderstanding was raised by the misleading headline of the article which was published at first and was immediately corrected."

Indeed, The Guardian tweaked its original 'Ferrari prepared to quit F1 if budget cap imposed, warns Binotto' headline to 'Ferrari to evaluate F1 future if budget cap imposed, warns Binotto'.

Can you see the difference? We can't either...

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