Ferrari not concerned about Mercedes' steady improvement over the 2022 F1 season

With two races of the season remaining at Brazil and Abu Dhabi, Ferrari are in danger of losing their second place in the constructors' standings to Mercedes, who are 40 points adrift.

At Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell claimed second and fourth place finishes overall, while Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc finished fifth and sixth respectively, but worryingly were of no threat all day to the teams ahead of them.

Sainz finished 58 seconds behind Red Bull race-winner Max Verstappen, with runner-up Hamilton only 15 seconds behind, while Leclerc was 68 seconds behind the Dutchman.

When asked about Mercedes' apparent resurgence, Ferrari boss Binotto said: "Mercedes is coming back.

"They have developed more on the car than we did. We know as well we stopped the development of our car quite early, focusing on 2023.

"So, I'm not too concerned by the rate of development because I know as well when we stopped developing," Binotto explained.

Ferrari looked very fast during the first few races of the season but have since drastically fallen away, which has seen Red Bull win the last nine races in a row.

"Certainly, if I look at the last races, it has not always been great but in Singapore, I think we were very competitive," Binotto said.

"The one after, Japan, it was in the wet. Yes, we were not as fast as Max but it was not a drama, and certainly not in qualifying.

"In Austin, in quali, we were competitive but not as much as we would have expected in the race.

"[In Mexico], it was a lot worse. I don't think it is the same trend because Singapore, competitive; Japan, not too bad; USA, good quali. So, it was a lot more difficult.

"I am hoping this is not a trend but it was an [outlying] weekend for us, so the job is to first try to analyse what is going on and what has been the main and try to be back competitive for what is our level of competitiveness, at least for the last two races.

"We certainly hope to be there and fight for a better result," he added.