“We would have risked losing the race” Mattia Binotto justifies Ferrari’s ‘diasterclass’ at the British Grand Prix.
Follow Us
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc after race.
Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s team principal, finally came out and spoke about the team’s idea behind the call they took over not pitting Charles Leclerc in the safety car.
Ferrari strategy calls have already taken out a bunch of points from the title contender, Charles Leclerc’s tally. They managed to ruin another strategic win, that now has a vast effect on the championship table, with the addition of only 37 points into their basket over an easy 44 just because of a wrong call taken under a safety car.
“At this moment, it was common sense to prioritise the lead car by protecting track positions. There’s nothing unusual in this strategy. We always prioritise the lead car and, therefore, Charles in this situation,” said Mattia defending his verdict on why he didn’t pit Charles.
“He was on fresher tyres at that point, and if he had pitted, our opponents would have done the exact opposite and gained track position on almost new hard tyres. Just think of Lewis Hamilton at last year’s season finale in Abu Dhabi when he stayed out on track,” he continued explaining the importance of track position with a losing example of Lewis Hamilton’s race in Abu Dhabi 2021.
He then shed some light on the boxing event that included Carlos Sainz ahead of Lewis Hamilton, which later turned out to be a race-winning one. “At the same time, we decided to put Carlos on the opposite strategy in order to cover all opportunities. If we wouldn’t have done that split strategy, we would have risked losing the race and handing the win to our opponents,” said Binotto.
Mattia Binotto also explained “Free to Fight” team orders in stint 1 of the race
Ferrari early in the race made a surprise decision to let both Charles and Carlos fight their ways to the win, while Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes chased both the Ferraris for his first win in the season. Binotto again refused to believe the fight was a wrong order even though that took out some great race timings from the Ferraris.
“The answer is quite simple: it was not necessary to do it at that point, and there was still a lot of time to make that decision. Our priority is always to maximise the situation in order for the best team result,” said Binotto considering 1 and 4 as the “best team result” the Italian team could have achieved.
“Only when this goal is under threat, do we need to act. We did this during the second stint and swapped cars when Carlos was not fast enough, and our opponents were catching us,” clearing out all the thoughts in the mind, said Binotto.
Ferrari did outplay themselves in a negative term to not maximise the opportunity this weekend offered them. With both the Red Bulls severely damaged in Silverstone could have turned up as a momentum changer again in the 2022 season.
/techfirstnow/media/agency_attachments/kATjCXskQdJKkXN0OuqW.png)