“Ferrari is the greatest support to Red Bull in the title battle,” Ralf Schumacher does not hold back after Charles Leclerc’s error in France
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Charles Leclerc's Ferrari in the barriers at Beausset in France
Red Bull currently sit 82 points ahead of Ferrari, which is a much larger gap than they would have expected to have after France, or really, after any weekend. It is really Ferrari collapsing in on themselves, either through strategy, reliability or in this case, driver mistakes, that Red Bull have such a cushion on top of the table.
In France, Charles Leclerc had held off Max Verstappen and also seemed to have better tyre wear, despite his huge gap to Verstappen on the straights, he was able to keep the Dutchman behind. But that did not matter in the end, as Leclerc made an unforced error and crashed into the barriers, forcing him to retire from the race.
This was not the only baffling thing during the race: When Carlos Sainz was battling with Sergio Perez for position, his engineer was on the radio telling him to box. Carlos Sainz had wanted to pit much earlier, but Ferrari wanted him to stay out. He eventually did pit, on lap 43, and was able to make his way up to 5th place, and take the fastest lap point.
The whole weekend left much to be desired from Ferrari, and Ralf Schumacher summed their weekend up as: “The greatest support for Red Bull in the World Championship is called Ferrari.”
Nico Rosberg can’t believe that Leclerc’s crash was a driver’s mistake
Charles Leclerc had screamed on the radio: “I cannot go off/find throttle!” following his crash and then had let go a horrifying scream of “NOOOOO!”. Leclerc later clarified that the ‘throttle’ comment was for not being able to reverse from the barriers and that there was no throttle problem. Some pundits are not so sure, as reported by PlanetF1.
Exports at F1-Insider did not believe that Leclerc made a driver mistake, and neither did Nico Hulkenberg. Hulkenberg had said to ServusTV: “It was a bit strange. Maybe he also wants to protect Ferrari.”
Nico Rosberg was also unconvinced and thought that Leclerc had taken the blame prematurely, adding: “He needs to go back now because it’s really very unusual for that to happen in the way it did because you’re not even pushing to the maximum there, you’re saving tyres.
“And also, what was happening with the engine there? It only takes a little bit of a cut or something that can kick out the rear. I really think they need to take some time to look at that because I still can’t believe that it would be a driver mistake.”
The two were also in disbelief at Ferrari’s strategy calls with Sainz. Nico Hulkenberg said: “The whole thing isn’t rocket science, but rather easy to see – even from the outside and also from Carlos even while driving.”
Nico Rosberg was left shaking his head at the Ferrari strategists: “What the hell are they doing there? I shake my head again at the Ferrari strategists. Carlos was in the middle of a big fight on the track and the whole team isn’t watching because they’re so busy doing their strategy calculations.” adding that it was time for Ferrari to make some ‘serious changes’.
Also Read: “They really want Red Bull to be World Champion,” Ralf Schumacher blasts Ferrari’s strategy
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)