Although the 2022 Formula 1 season is not yet over, with six GPs scheduled after the one held in Monza, this year’s championship will be remembered for the series of strategic mistakes made by Scuderia Ferrari. Between wrong choices, calls to the pits made too late or even pit stops with three new tires instead of four, Max Verstappen’s current world championship lead is also due to these moments, which favored the Dutch’s success and prevented the Maranello team from challenging Red Bull, despite the strong pace shown by the F1-75 in the first part of the season.
The reigning champion, as happened in Belgium, was able to make another comeback at Monza in the Italian Grand Prix, which ended with a victory also because of a move chosen by Scuderia Ferrari, who called Charles Leclerc during the Virtual Safety Car period for his first pit stop.
From that moment, Max Verstappen never lost the lead of the Italian Grand Prix, limiting himself to a single stop as compared to the two made by the Monegasque, who then mounted the soft in an attempt to recover in the final part of the race against his rival. A plan that eventually failed also due to the late entry of the Safety Car, which escorted the drivers to the finish.
More than a mistake, in this case, it was also an unfortunate circumstance for the Maranello team, as admitted by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. The British manager, commenting on the option of Ferrari to bet everything on the red compound and attempt to recover the gap in the last laps of the Italian Grand Prix, did not in fact consider this choice a mistake:
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“We understood why they did it – he said – we had the faster car, but I don’t think strategically they made a bad choice, I think we just had a faster package. We would have won the race anyway, regardless of this”. Speaking of the impressive speed of the Red Bull, Christian Horner added an explanation on the margin between his cars and his direct rivals, also seen at Monza: “We have refined the car, and we have managed to understand it very well – he admitted – it is very efficient in high-speed and low-drag circuits, so Spa and Monza were very favorable for us. We compromised qualifying a bit, knowing we would take the penalty, and we did well. We had an incredible pace.” – the Red Bull boss concluded.
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