Fer𒆙rari team boss Mattia Binotto insists its pre-season testing showing was 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 g𓂃et a better understanding of its latest challenger, the SF1000.

Ferrari conced💫ed 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 any💟thing wrong in terms of correlation. That’s the true performance of the car,” Binotto told the official Formula 1 website.

“Where will be compared to the others? Barcelona is🗹 always testi🎃ng, you need to wait for the first three races to understand where you are.

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

Speaking abouꦚt the performance of Mercedes throughout 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 project into a different direction compared to the past🐽.

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

While Ferrari has now lost some of its straight-line speed advantage due to the pursuit of adding more downforce to its 2020 car, Binotto expects the Scuderia to boast a stronger threat in r𓂃ace-tri🎃m this year.

“We have been a lot faster through the corners cꦦompared to last year,” he explainไed.

“So the car is doing what we are expecting, being faster in the corners, but💞 we’re slower on the straights.

“I think we believe that having more dow🌸nforce 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 stro♑nger on thᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚe longer stints. That’s the benefit of more downforce.”