Scuderia Ferrari admitted that there are “no regrets” over the team’s late plan to give Charles Leclerc the chance to attack and pass the Red Bull car of Sergio Perez in the fourth round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which eventually backfired as Charles made a mistake and ended up in sixth place at Imola.
Charles Leclerc did not have a great start, as opposed to his start in Saturday’s Sprint race and seemed set for a third place finish in Italy, behind the Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. However, on lap 50, the Maranello team attempted one last move to gest past Sergio Perez by calling Charles in for soft tyres. The strategy option led to all three cars going for fresh rubber, and that could offer the Monegasque driver the opportunity for one last attempt on passing Sergio Perez.
While pushing hard to get close to the Mexican driver, Charles Leclerc attacked too hard at the Variante Alta chicane and spun off, brushing the wall. He could return on track, but had to pit again to change the front wing and dropped down the order, eventually recovering three places to finish in P6 at Imola. While the lost points could prove costly in the world championship fight, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto does not have any regrets for the call to put Charles in the position of pushing hard:
“I think there will never be regret to ask a driver to push. I think that is part of our job, and it’s part of their job trying to drive to the limit. Mistakes can happen. I think with this year’s cars, obviously, the cars on the kerbs are a lot more stiffer and somehow, if you make a small mistake, you’re paying for it quite a lot. So no regrets. I think we made the right choice and that is it.” – he explained.
Mattia Binotto was clear that the decision to go for a second pit stop was an aggressive move to grab to gain a place and did noy result from the need to change the medium tyres: “We were not running out of front tyres. At that time of the race, the pace with Sergio Perez was very, very similar or slightly better. But, because we believed that there was no opportunity for us to attack and overtake Perez with those tyres any more, we did the pit stop. We hoped that they would have stopped as well, which was the case. So they were both on new tyres. It was like resetting the race, 15 laps to go, and on soft tyres. I think it worked somehow pretty well because Charles was very close to Sergio and he tried to attack before he made the mistake.” – he added.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Pume Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
The Monegasque driver confirmed that the spin had been triggered by him being too greedy with the kerbs, but felt that he did not take too many risks at the chicane during the Emilia Romagna GP weekend.
“I don’t think I was taking particularly more risk,” he said. “I was quick there and the car felt good there, especially in the race today. I felt like it was probably one of the corners where Checo was a bit less competitive than me. And obviously on that lap, I knew that there was an opportunity. So I tried to push a bit more, and it was too much. Apart from that, I don’t think I’ve taken any unnecessary risk on the other laps during the weekend or whatsoever. Everything was okay on that side.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
Leave a Reply