Binotto hits back at doubts over Ferrari legality

Mattia Binotto says increased scrutiny on Ferrari's mighty power unit is unfair and "a shame".

After years of Mercedes dominance in the power stakes since the dawning of the V6 Hybrid era in 2014, Ferrari have closed the gap and begun to open up one of their own in 2019.

Their most recent upgrade has left the rest of the field standing. Max Verstappen recently called the red cars' straight-line advantage "insane" while Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have shared the last six pole positions between them, five to one in Leclerc's favour.

It was reported at the Mexican GP that a Ferrari victory might be followed by an official protest to the FIA, who have apparently fielded requests from rivals about the legality of the Scuderia's engine.

"All the F1 teams are working very hard to build competitive advantages," Binotto told Motorsport.com.

"We have worked very hard to improve our power unit package which was not the best when the regulations came into force in 2014. "If we are in front now, we should simply be proud of it. We need to be clear, it's somehow a shame reading what I read on the internet or in newspapers.

"Other competitors had an advantage in the past and nobody put any blame on that.

"As Ferrari, when we got a disadvantage on the power unit, the only thing we put is effort in trying to address it and improve our power unit. It would be a lot more fair to not read or hear some comments.

"The FIA is always and continuously looking at the telemetry data, always looking at all power unit's compliance to the regulations, and is always inspecting as they did every single year and every single race.

"I have no clear facts of protests or anybody indicating anything special to the FIA.

"We've got an advantage there, maybe not as big as people may believe, but it's only down to hard work and we are very proud of it."

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