How to re-create a festive winter vibe without the stress (and snow)? Simple: Transform your interiors with the scents of cypress, juniper, pine and sandalwood.

Here, we offer seven holiday candles that are all hand-poured by makers in L.A. Some are sweet, others are smoky; all are festive.

Best of all: When the candle is finished, simply reuse the glass container as a planter — we’ll explain — and offer it as an inexpensive, up-cycled hostess gift.

Do you have a favorite holiday candle of your own? Let us know at [email protected]

Cupressus (Cypress)

From: Barratt Riley & Co

Smells like: Patagonian cypress, fir needles, oakmoss and cedarwood

About the makers: Phoenix psychologist Tyler Barratt and Beverly Hills beauty guru Christian Fitzgerald Riley have teamed up to create an artisan line of coconut wax candles scented with botanical essential oils. The candles are hand-poured in Los Angeles and include a botanical series, a floral assortment and a farmers market collection. Candles may be applied as a body moisturizer, massage oil or fragrance, and come packaged in a muslin bag and box for gift-giving.

Info: $52, barrattriley.com

Spruce

From: P.F. Candle Co

Smells like: Blue spruce, cedarwood and citrus

About the makers: Kristen Pumphrey and Thomas Neuberger started P.F. Candle Co as an Etsy shop in 2008. They found success by working events like the Renegade Craft Fair and recently opened bricks-and-mortar stores in Echo Park and Culver City. “Having physical retail locations gives us the opportunity to connect with our customers like we did in our craft fair days,” Pumphrey said. “With our Culver City shop, we also have a space where we can host workshops and events, which celebrates our DIY roots and allows people to come experience scent in person.” Amber & Moss, a year-round candle featuring sage, moss and lavender, is another great forest scent for the holidays.

Info: $20, pfcandleco.com

Mistletoe reclaimed wine bottle candles

From: Stone Candles

Smells like: White mountain aurora pine and melon

About the makers: Michael and Daniel Wainer’s candle bar in Santa Monica offers natural, hand-crafted coconut wax blend candles and a variety of candle-making workshops. “We wanted Mistletoe to smell like morning mountain dew in the forest,” said Daniel. Return with the wine bottle — or any container — and you can refill it with the scented wax of your choice, $15 minimum. The father-and-son company has also partnered with Exceptional Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to creating opportunities for people with disabilities, in creating Light 4 Life Cause, a private label manufacturing facility in Inglewood.

Info: $25, stonecandles.com

Emerald Forest

From: Apothenne Los Angeles

Smells like: Blue spruce, rose, patchouli, fir and sandalwood

About the maker: Jacqueline Bradley named her independent candle company using the words apothecary and doyenne to honor powerful female makers. The Apothenne Los Angeles candle line is handcrafted with 100% non-GMO soy wax and a blend of essential oils and fragrance oils. Candles are available in three different glass jars including pink, amber and clear and a cylinder gift box.

Info: $32, apothenne.com

Holiday Hinoki Fantome

From: Boy Smells

Smells like: Resin, hinoki, cardamom, jasmine and moss

About the makers: The Pico Union brand began as an experiment in 2016 when real-life partners Matthew Herman and David Kien created a coconut and beeswax line in their kitchen. The couple went on to create a candle line that was gender fluid by incorporating masculine and feminine scents simultaneously. “This year we wanted to do something that felt sophisticated,” said Herman of the Hinoki Fantome, Cedar and Ash limited-edition candles. “Our holiday candles are smokier and moodier. We call the Hinoki our apocalyptic holiday candle. Even the wax is a smoky hue. It’s spice heavy and more about renewal than nostalgia. I’m a big believer that something amazing can be reborn from the ashes this year.” Boy Smells is hosting a pop-up through December at Poketo at Row DTLA featuring their full collection, seasonal scents, new products and free gift wrapping.

Info: $34, boysmells.com

Fir Balsam

From: Daniel Stone of Stone Candles

Smells like: Cedarleaf, patchouli, pine fir needle, cedarleaf, eucalyptus, cedarwood and vanilla musk

Info: $45, stonecandles.com

Over the Brim

From: Torch

Smells like: Juniper, pine, evergreen herbs and balsam fir

About the maker: Claunesha “Cjay” Jones created her handcrafted coconut wax candle line (T.O.R.C.H is an acronym for Thoughts of Rich Choices and Habits) with “luxury meets eco-friendly” in mind. Her candles are non-toxic and can be used as a lotion or massage oil. Torch candles are also available at the Atwater and Hollywood farmers markets.

Info: $30, torchla.com

How to turn your candle holder into an up-cycled planter

When the candle has finished burning, place the glass container upside down on a lined cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 200-degrees, so any leftover wax can melt onto the sheet. This works better than the freezer method. Allow container to cool, and clean before filling with soil and succulents. (The lack of drainage holes means very little water is needed to keep the succulents thriving.) Pilea peperomioides cuttings work well too. You now have a repurposed gift for the plant-loving millennial in your life.

COPENHAGEN — 

Finland’s next government is breaking the mold in multiple ways.

Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old transport minister, was tapped over the weekend by the ruling Social Democratic Party to be Finland’s new prime minister. When she takes the reins of the country, most likely on Tuesday, she will become the world’s youngest sitting head of government.

In another unusual development, Marin will head a coalition with four other parties that are all led by women — three of whom are in their early 30s. Her own biography also breaks the mold: Raised by a single mother, she has described feeling discriminated against in Finland when her mother was in a relationship with another woman.

Elina Penttinen, a lecturer in gender studies at the University of Helsinki, said the rise of so many women is “exceptional” not only by the standards of the wider world, where older men hold most power, but even by the standards of Finland, which regularly ranks as one of the best countries in the world for gender equality.

“Here it seems pretty amazing too,” she said.

The Social Democrats emerged as the strongest party after Finland’s election in April. Antti Rinne, the incumbent prime minister whom Marin is replacing, stepped down last week amid political turmoil caused by a strike of postal workers. Rinne says he plans to continue as the Social Democrats’ leader until a party congress next summer.

Penttinen described Marin as a talented politician known for her leadership skills whose progressive program emphasizes combating climate change, protecting the country’s famous social protections like healthcare, and reaching out to young people.

Finland, like much of the West, has seen a rise in right-wing populists, and the nationalist Finns Party did well in the April election, though centrist and left-wing parties won most votes and together could govern in the multiparty coalition.

“I hope it’s a sign of more change to come against populists, especially in the age of Trump and populism,” Penttinen said.

A tweet by a journalist for Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat with photos of the quintet drew attention online by visually underscoring the idea of rising female power in politics.

Marin will become the youngest-serving leader of a government in the world, beating out Ukraine’s 35-year-old prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk. She might not hold that title for long, however. Sebastian Kurz, the 33-year-old former Austrian chancellor who rose to that position when he was 31, won an election in September and is in talks to form a new governing coalition that would put him back in the job.

Marin joins a small group of female leaders who have sought to counteract the rise of populism. That group includes Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova, 46, a progressive whose election this year bucked the trend of populism and nationalism in Central Europe.

And like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is 39, Marin is a new mother, having given birth to a daughter last year.

A lawmaker since 2015, Marin is the party’s vice chairwoman and was minister for transport and communications in the outgoing government.

Lawmakers are likely to approve the new government this week so Marin can represent Finland at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. Finland holds the EU’s rotating presidency until the end of the year.

Beside Marin, the coalition’s other party leaders are 32-year-old Katri Kulmuni of the Center Party; the Left Alliance’s Li Andersson, 32; Maria Ohisalo, the 34-year-old leader of the Greens; and the head of the Swedish People’s Party, Anna-Maja Henriksson, who at 55 is the oldest.

The coalition will have a comfortable majority of 117 seats in the 200-seat Eduskunta, or Parliament.

The Center Party announced Monday that Kulmuni will be the finance minister in the new government.

Marin will be Finland’s third female government leader. Women have been present in politics in the Nordic region for decades and today represent half of the party leaders in Sweden. Four of Denmark’s nine parties are headed by women.

Mette Frederiksen became Denmark’s prime minister in June, and Erna Solberg has been Norway’s head of government since 2013.

Iceland’s Vigdis Finnbogadottir was the first woman to be democratically elected as head of state by voters when she defeated three men for the presidency in 1980.

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BETHLEHEM, West Bank — 

For decades, the people of Bethlehem have watched tour buses drive up to the Church of the Nativity, disgorge their passengers for a few hours at the traditional birthplace of Jesus, and then return to Israel.

But in recent years a new form of tourism has taken root, focused on the West Bank town’s Palestinian residents, their culture and history and their struggles under Israeli occupation.

As pilgrims descend on Bethlehem this Christmas, they have the option of staying in restored centuries-old guesthouses, taking food tours of local markets and perusing the dystopian art in and around a hotel designed by the British graffiti artist Banksy.

The centerpiece of tourism, and the focus of Christmas celebrations in the coming weeks, is the 6th century Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus is believed to have been born in a manger. Extensive renovations in recent years have saved the roof from collapse and revealed colorful wall mosaics depicting angels and saints.

This month, the Vatican returned a small part of what Christians believe to be the original manger, which was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope in the 7th century. The thumb-sized relic, displayed in an ornate silver case, can be seen in a chapel adjoining the church.

In Manger Square, just outside the church, a massive Christmas tree has been set up and festivities are planned in the coming weeks as various denominations hold staggered Christmas celebrations. On Jan. 7, Bethlehem will host an international Santa convention.

Tourism has suffered in the past during outbreaks of violence between Israel and the Palestinians. But the Palestinian Tourism Ministry expects 3.5 million visitors to Bethlehem in 2019, up from 3 million the previous year, and many think there is still room for growth.

“The general situation in Palestine and the Holy Land is that there is very good security, better than most countries in the world, and so the people are visiting,” said Elias Arja, chairman of the local hotel association.

He noted that while the Holy Land is home to the most important sites in Christianity, including the places where tradition says Christ was born, where he grew up, was crucified and resurrected, it attracts far fewer visitors than the Vatican. “We have the opportunity to draw more people,” he said.

Religious tourism is a boon for the local economy, but many Palestinians feel the city’s modern residents are largely ignored.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians view the territories as part of their national homeland and hope to one day establish an independent state.

Visitors traveling to Bethlehem pass through a sprawling Israeli checkpoint and then drive along the separation wall, which Israel began building during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the early 2000s. Israel says the barrier is needed to prevent attacks, but the Palestinians view it as a land grab because its route places almost 10% of the West Bank on the Israeli side. Bethlehem is almost completely surrounded by the barrier and a string of Jewish settlements.

The town’s predicament is on vivid display in and around the Walled Off Hotel, which was designed by Banksy and opened in 2017. The hotel looks out on the separation wall, which is covered with artwork, graffiti and museum panels explaining life under occupation. Inside, a number of Banksy pieces are depicted in a haunting lobby, which this time of year is dimly lighted with Christmas lights.

The hotel offers weekly performances by local musicians and daily tours of a nearby Palestinian refugee camp. Tours of Banksy’s public artwork elsewhere in the town can be organized on request.

A different form of alternative tourism, conceived by Palestinians, can be found in the city center, just a few hundred yards from the church. There the municipality, with Italian aid, has restored an 18th century guesthouse and rented it out to Fadi Kattan, a French Palestinian chef.

The Hosh Al-Syrian Guesthouse includes 12 tastefully furnished rooms ranging from $80 to $150 a night. At its Fawda Restaurant — Arabic for chaos — Kattan uses local ingredients to cook up traditional Palestinian cuisine with a modern twist.

“My vision was to say religious tourism will promote itself by itself, it doesn’t need the private sector to promote it,” he said. “Let’s promote everything else. Let’s promote our food, let’s promote our culture, let’s promote our history.”

Kattan is especially keen to promote Palestinian cuisine, which he says has been appropriated by Israeli chefs and food writers. As with nearly everything else having to do with the Middle East conflict, there are two sides: Israeli cuisine owes much to Jewish immigrants from ancient communities across the Middle East and North Africa.

The guesthouse partners with a local group known as Farayek to offer food tours in which visitors wander through the local market, meeting farmers, butchers and bakers before having lunch at the guesthouse. Another program includes cooking classes taught by a Palestinian grandmother.

“What I was hoping to achieve is to have people stay three nights in Bethlehem, to have people go to the fruit and vegetable market, to have people meet the people of Bethlehem, not just the very short tour into the city,” he said.

When the guesthouse opened in 2014, the average stay was one night, but now it has risen to three and a half, with steady occupancy throughout the low season, Kattan said.

A handful of other restored guesthouses also have opened in recent years, including Dar al-Majus, Arabic for House of the Magi, named for the three kings said to have visited the manger after Christ was born.

The guesthouse is part of a wider initiative by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land and a local association to support the Christian community. Bethlehem’s Christian community, like others across the Middle East, has dramatically dwindled in recent decades as Christians have fled war and conflict or sought better economic opportunities abroad.

A local family living next to the guesthouse cooks breakfast and traditional meals for guests, and the guesthouse employs members of two more families. The guesthouse mostly supplies itself from the local market, and there are plans to expand to another restored house in the old quarter next year.

Bethlehem’s mayor, Anton Salman, expects the recent growth in tourism to continue.

“Each season is more active and more organized and more attractive for the local community in Palestine and for the tourists,” he said.

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WASHINGTON — 

The U.S. government across three White House administrations misled the public about failures in the Afghanistan war, often suggesting success where it didn’t exist, according to thousands of pages of documents obtained by the Washington Post.

The documents reveal deep frustrations about America’s conduct of the Afghanistan war, including the ever-changing U.S. strategy, the struggles to develop an effective Afghan fighting force and persistent failures to defeat the Taliban and combat corruption throughout the government.

“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing,” Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House’s Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers in 2015.

The interviews were conducted as part of a “Lessons Learned” project by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction over the last several years. The agency has produced seven reports so far from the more than 400 interviews, and several more are in the works. The Post sought and received raw interview data through the Freedom of Information Act and lawsuits.

The documents quote officials close to the 18-year war effort describing a campaign by the U.S. government to distort the grim reality of the war.

“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a counterinsurgency advisor to U.S. military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers, according to the Post. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”

The Pentagon released a statement Monday saying there has been “no intent” by the department to mislead Congress or the public.

Defense Department officials “have consistently briefed the progress and challenges associated with our efforts in Afghanistan, and DoD provides regular reports to Congress that highlight these challenges,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, a department spokesman. “Most of the individuals interviewed spoke with the benefit of hindsight. Hindsight has also enabled the department to evaluate previous approaches and revise our strategy, as we did in 2017 with the launch of the president’s South Asia strategy.”

SIGAR has frequently been vocal about the war’s failures in reports going back more than a decade, including extensive questions about vast waste in the nearly $1 trillion spent on the conflict.

The Post said that John Sopko, the head of SIGAR, acknowledged that the documents show “the American people have constantly been lied to.” SIGAR was created by Congress in 2008 to conduct audits and investigations into waste of government spending on the war in Afghanistan.

Democrats on Capitol Hill were quick to endorse the story’s findings.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) tweeted: “The war in Afghanistan is an epic bipartisan failure. I have long called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from that quagmire. Now it appears U.S. officials misled the American public about the war. It is time to leave Afghanistan. Now.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said in a tweet: “775,000 of our troops deployed. 2,400 American lives lost. Over 20,000 Americans wounded. 38,000 civilians killed. Trillions spent. Rumsfeld in 2003: ‘I have no visibility into who the bad guys are.’”

Sarah Kreps, professor of government and international relations at Cornell University, said the interviews revealed the enormous disconnect between what civilian and military leaders knew about the war and what the public knew, particularly about its costs.

The Post said that while the interviews contain few revelations about military operations in the war, they include a lot of criticism that rebuts the narrative that officials often touted about progress being made.

James Dobbins, a former senior U.S. diplomat who served as a special envoy to Afghanistan under Bush and Obama, was blunt in his assessment of the war in his interview.

“We don’t invade poor countries to make them rich,” the Post quoted Dobbins as saying in one of the interviews. “We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan.”

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, expects the panel to vote soon, possibly this week, on at least two or more charges against the Republican president.

Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today:

TOP STORIES

The Big Impeachment Reveal

This morning, House Democrats plan to announce their impeachment articles against President Trump after a high-level meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last night. Democrats are widely expected to accuse Trump of abuse of power and attempting to obstruct congressional investigations.

The announcement follows yesterday’s final House Judiciary Committee hearing, which began with a protester accusing the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, of treason and grew only more rancorous from there.

Republicans repeatedly tried to grind down the proceeding with objections, while Democrats accused Trump of jeopardizing the nation’s democracy in a reckless bid for political survival.

17 Problems, but Partisan Bias Isn’t One

In the latest investigation of an investigation, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog has issued a 434-page report that sharply criticizes the FBI for its clandestine surveillance of a former Trump campaign advisor suspected of working with Russian intelligence.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz cited 17 “significant errors or omissions.” But Horowitz also said his investigators uncovered no evidence that the mistakes were intentional or influenced by political bias, as Trump has repeatedly alleged.

More Politics

— The World Trade Organization’s dispute-settling system is about to get knee-capped by Washington.

— Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been freed from a confidentiality pact that barred him from publicly identifying the clients of McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm that employed him a decade ago.

Fighting the Power

After years of deadly wildfires and a season of sweeping blackouts, a new poll of California voters conducted for The Times finds most would impose major changes to the operations and control of Pacific Gas & Electric, a company beleaguered by sharp criticism and struggling to dig out of financial troubles.

Fewer than 1 in 8 likely voters surveyed want PG&E to fix its own problems and maintain its current structure once it emerges from bankruptcy next year. So, what would they like to see instead? That’s where it gets dicey.

How to ‘Adult’ in Six Easy Lessons

Romantic relationships. Money management. Home maintenance. These are among the proverbial things they don’t teach you in school. Except these days, there are classes on “adulting” for college students and postgrads, and they’re proving to be quite popular. Even UC Berkeley is offering a student-run course.

101 More Reasons to Love L.A.

Fish steamed with aromatics, finished with hot oil, and served in a spare and oddly angled room. A carnitas mixta taco known as the “Aporkalypse.” The perfect pastrami. These are just three of the culinary wonders that await in the 101 Best Restaurants of L.A. list, this time adjudicated by our restaurant critics Bill Addison and Patricia I. Escárcega. It’s online now and in print on Sunday, but you have to be an L.A. Times subscriber.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

On this day in 1939, Los Angeles voters passed a law banning pinball games by a wide margin, with about 161,000 votes for and 113,000 against.

The Times reported the next morning: “Pin-ball games, marble boards, scoop claws and similar devices, under the ordinance approved yesterday by the people, will be declared nuisances in public places, and therefore subject to seizure by the police … Mayor Bowron and his Police Commission urged the adoption of the anti pin-ball law on the grounds that the machines are used for petty gambling, so widespread that the police are totally insufficient in number to enforce the law.”

The ban would eventually be overturned decades later, in 1974 — but in the meantime, plenty of pinball machines were destroyed.

CALIFORNIA

— Does the financing of a Disneyland parking garage amount to a city subsidy? A new lawsuit by a group of resort workers argues it does, and that the Anaheim resort is violating a 2018 ballot measure by failing to pay them a living wage.

— The state wants to hit CVS with a $3.6-million penalty after dozens of its stores declined to redeem cans and bottles — part of California’s broader effort to pressure retailers to accept recyclable containers from consumers.

— A Newport Beach woman has agreed to plead guilty in the the college admissions scandal, admitting she plotted to have mastermind Rick Singer’s employee take online classes for her son and submit them to Georgetown University.

— Amid the wasteland of the Salton Sea, a miraculous but challenging oasis has been born.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Propelled by Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic “The Irishman,” the searing divorce drama “Marriage Story” and the Vatican-set “The Two Popes,” Netflix racked up 17 Golden Globes nominations in film alone. It signals a new era for cinema.

— The snubs and surprises were many, but we rounded up the biggest. In the TV categories, the Globes overlooked people of color, shutting out Ava DuVernay’s Central Park Five documentary “When They See Us” and the alternate-history drama “Watchmen.” The full list of the nominees includes TV’s first Muslim American sitcom and made for plenty of excited reactions, and includes a handful of head-scratchers.

— In movies, the best director category was again bereft of any women. Charlize Theron calls it “really ridiculous.” And our critic Mary McNamara points out the Globes’ gender problem isn’t just about directors — it’s about what kinds of movies get nominated.

— Before her annual benefit show for homeless LGBTQ youth, Cyndi Lauper talked with us about her new musical, her time in L.A. and how she sees herself in Lizzo and Billie Eilish.

NATION-WORLD

— The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show the images to patients seeking abortions.

— The presidents of Ukraine and Russia have agreed to revive the peace process on the bloody separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine and exchange all their prisoners, but they failed to resolve crucial issues.

— As Sanna Marin takes over as Finland’s prime minister, the 34-year-old is becoming the world’s youngest sitting head of state. But she’s breaking the mold in other ways, too.

— In the modern West Bank city of Bethlehem, Christmastime religious tourism is a boon for the local economy. But many Palestinians, feeling it ignores modern residents, are offering other kinds of tourism, too.

BUSINESS

— Under a settlement with the feds, the country’s biggest blueberry producer can’t recruit foreign agricultural guest workers for three years and must pay $3.5 million in back wages and penalties.

— ViacomCBS is considering selling the historic CBS headquarters known as “Black Rock” in midtown Manhattan.

— Under pressure from the #PayUpHollywood campaign, the talent agency Verve is boosting assistants’ pay and other benefits.

— A new study of Obamacare proves that having health insurance will reduce U.S. death rates, columnist Michael Hiltzik writes.

SPORTS

— Russia’s doping scandal just got it banned from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other major sporting events over the next four years. But critics say the punishment isn’t severe enough.

— Two linemen have now de-committed from USC in three days, after the university announced Clay Helton was staying on as head coach.

OPINION

— In inexplicably rushing to an impeachment vote, Democrats are forgoing the subpoenaing of key witnesses who could shed light on potential abuse of power, writes Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert whom House Republicans called to testify last week.

— Drug companies’ reliance on Chinese ingredients puts both our health and our national security at risk, write former FDA official Henry I. Miller and former congressional lawyer John J. Cohrssen.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— For nearly two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. leaders have said they are making progress. Documents from government interviews show they weren’t, and they knew it. (Washington Post)

— “You keep loving each other.” In chronicling her grandfather’s dementia, a photographer offers an intimate window into the end of a life, and a lifelong partnership. (STAT News)

— The $120,000 conceptual art piece involving a banana duct-taped to a wall has created a reaction that is bananas. (ArtNet)

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Does it seem as if no one in California knows how to drive? (Present company excepted, of course.) Then look no further than the Department of Motor Vehicles handbook. Critics say its prose is just too hard to navigate. Even the DMV admitted to consumer columnist David Lazarus that “the handbook is written at a level that is above where it should be.” Here’s how it could turn the page.

If you like the Today’s Headlines newsletter, please share it with friends. Comments or ideas? Email us at [email protected].

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto believes the speculation surrounding the Scuderia’s power unit in the second part of 2019 was just a ploy used by its rivals to pressure the Italian outfit.

Ferrari’s sudden boost in form after F1’s summer break had its rivals trying to figure out where the Scuderia’s power advantage was coming from.

A query from Red Bull led to scrutiny from the FIA and a to series of technical directives clarifying potential non-compliant tricks, the likes of which could help boost an engine’s power output.

Red Bull won’t hesitate to protest Ferrari in 2020

But Binotto contends that the suspicions from Ferrari’s rivals were perhaps feigned and used as a mere ploy to pressure and “distract” the Scuderia.

“I’m not sure they really doubted us,” Binotto told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

“They probably used the circumstance to put pressure on us. Pressure distracts. It is part of the game of Formula 1 to unsettle the opponent.

“Our business isn’t just about a sporting and technical competition. Anything that harms the opponent is good to use.”

Intrigue emerged in Austin when Ferrari’s straight-line speed advantage suddenly vanished on race day, 24 hours after the release by the FIA of its first technical directive.

Binotto says that Ferrari’s rivals were right about the red cars losing their edge, but for the wrong reasons.

“They drew the wrong conclusions,” said the Swiss engineer.

“We didn’t change the operating conditions of the engines. In order to generate more downforce, the increased the drag. Therefore, we were a bit faster in the corners, but slower on the straights.”

©Ferrari