Are Ferrari suggesting that they don't expect to start with a strong car in 2022?
This article begins with the F1 CEO talking about how he expects at the start of the season, some cars will be a lot better than others, due to how they've each interpreted the new rules. I think anyone would agree that this would be as expected, similar to what we saw at the start of the current era, when no-one could touch Mercedes. But then it goes on to a quote from Binotto at Ferrari, who I think sounds quite negative and effectively says that Ferrari's biggest strength is that they can catch up with whoever starts the season ahead.
I am guessing that it is expected of Ferrari to not be at the top right away, he knows this and we know it and everyone else know it as well. Some stuff changed, specially the style of the car but engine is basically similar as far as I know, and they didn't have a great engine to be fair. Plus, Mercedes and Red Bull are known to push the limits of what is legal and what is not, we have seen teams end up doing something that was in the gray area, and then end up getting that thing banned but not retrospectively punished and then the team had to change it, red bull most famously had the wing situation for example, wasn't illegal, made illegal because of the gray area situation.
Binotto basically means exactly those situations, some teams will follow the rules to a dot, and some will try to push it and see if they can get away with it or not.