The reasons given by the Ferrari boss for the change of position between Sainz and Leclerc in Hungary

Ferrari He has a major problem: his car still hasn’t won and he continues to go far. In Hungarythe red racing car was overtaken not only by red bullalso for McLaren and Mercedes. Ferrari It was the fourth car in the Hungarian event, far from where they wanted and a very hard confirmation that things were not looking good.

the box Maranello I have high hopes for their developments. The factory team worked bit by bit, day and night, and managed to present pieces against the clock, in record time, advancing delivery times by several weeks. He showed a new package of improvements in Barcelona which was not very convincing, and another good package of evolutions in Austria. But the performance of the car is very irregular.

Enjoy this race streaming on DAZN Activate your account!

In Spain, the degradation sank their cars, very fast in a turn but unable to push in the race because they ate the tires. In Canadathings got better and Austria, Leclerc’s second position seems to indicate that Ferrari is finding the right path. But in Great Britain and Hungarytwo completely different tracks, confirmed the superiority of McLaren and Mercedes and the need for Ferrari to continue analyzing data and finding solutions.

strategy decisions

In such a complex context, the main thing is the car, finding a solution to make the car faster. And the least, which pilot is ahead. But the red team has given priority to Charles on several occasions this year with decisions that have surprised the paddock, not only the Spanish press, but also many other nationalities.

An example of this occurred weeks ago when Austria. “I played as a team and they promised me. You stay, I don’t want to say with a bit of a silly face, with a very bitter feeling”said the Spaniard when he saw how he was not allowed to overtake Charles in the race and after being hurt for making a pit stop just behind the Monegasque where he lost a lot of time. He could fight for the podium and finished 6th due to the subsequent penalty. However, a week later he arrived in Great Britain defending the red team’s strategy, as Carlos always does, putting the team’s interests first.

Two weeks after Silverstone, at Hungary, Carlos is hurt again. He started with a different approach, risking soft tires at the start. His start was great: he gained 5 places and stayed just behind Charles. If he wanted to complete a better strategy and optimize his race, he should have taken advantage of the softer starting tire, but this did not happen. In this case, no radio broadcast was made and it is not known if the team again asked him not to attack. Carlos stayed behind Leclerc, unable to stop his tires and not overtake his partner, something that Sainz told the Spanish newspaper was not agreed upon: “There was no agreement. Everyone was doing his career, doing what he could.”

Later, after a bad first stop with Charles due to a pistol, Sainz won that place and went to the front. The order is reversed, but the team gets the same points. The driver ahead is usually the first to stop, but at the second pit stop the team made their Monegasque mistake. He called Charles first and Soon Sainz entered. That team decision cost him the position of Charles. But again, Carlos underestimated it.

“The truth is that I started very well and I ran fast in the race, but I insist: the Mercedes, the Red Bulls and the McLarens, when we go for longer stints with harder tires, they put us in a lot of things and that makes the stints longer and that’s where we suffer the most”added the Spanish. He made it clear that he doesn’t care about finishing 7th or 8th and that the team needs to focus on improving the car, everyone’s only priority. Of course, Carlos believes that the team did this to “compensate” for the mistake in the pits with Charles.

Vasseur’s version

“This is the best way for us to protect the team’s results. At the end of the race, if you look, I think the potential of Charles, taking into account the fact that Carlos had to start with soft tires and how we were with (tire life) Charles probably finished 20 seconds before Carlos, means that he was the right choice.

“No one can predict before the pit call that he will receive a penalty (in the second stop, Leclerc exceeded the pit lane speed limit), that he will have a problem with the pistol and so on. It’s always easy to replay the race after the checkered flag and say it could have been different. But I think at this stage of the race, it’s the right decision and I’m convinced.”commented Vasseur.