"Ferrari should adopt more aggressive attitude with strategy, changing a prudent mentality"

To make mistakes is human, to persevere in these errors is diabolical. During the press conference held at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Mattia Binotto underlined that the Maranello must improve and will do so, but yesterday in Budapest there was again a dynamic already seen a few months ago in Monaco with the same result. Red Bull, with nothing to lose, entered the pits in Monaco with Sergio Perez to mount the intermediate tires, yesterday they called Max Verstappen to the pits to put the second set of medium tires not worrying about the rain that seemed imminent (drops of water which have intensified without ever forcing the drivers to abandon the slick tires).

In both races, the Ferrari pit wall took the bait, feeling obliged to call Charles Leclerc back to the pits to defend the Monegasque’s leadership in the Grand Prix rather than insisting on the strategy set by ignoring the moves of their rivals. In light of Ferrari’s overall performance observed yesterday on soft tires, it is not certain that Charles Leclerc could have won the Hungarian Grand Prix, but fitting the hard tires 30 laps from the finish proved to be a very wrong choice that relegated the Monegasque from the first to the sixth final position. A difficult result to digest for Charles Leclerc, who has reached the podium only once in the last eight races, although on that occasion at least he won in Austria.

In ten races, Charles Leclerc went from having 46 points ahead of Max Verstappen to having 80 points to recover, a partial of -126 which corresponds to an average of 12 and a half points lost every Sunday, half of the maximum at stake considering the points awarded for the victory of a Grand Prix (25 points). A collapse to which two mechanical failures have contributed and some of his own mistakes (the 32 points himself admitted can be linked to Imola and Le Castellet), but which is also attributable to the blackouts of the Ferrari pitwall in terms of strategies.

Giorgio Terruzzi, in his editorial for Corriere della Sera entitled ‘But now the boss has to change the pitwall’, invites Mattia Binotto to act right now and bring changes after the several mistakes seen in this first half of the 2022 Formula 1 season: “A Ferrari team that loses brings collective sadness for the fans, but a Ferrari team that does not win when it could given the speed of the car, involves absolute nervousness. […] There is a need for a leader to defend his team, to take the blame. These are typical charges, offset by honors, when things go well and by ferocious accusations when things go wrong. As happened yesterday in Budapest where Ferrari would have lost the race anyway for reasons independent to the tires; where the choice of tires appeared dissociated from Charles Leclerc’s performance. The theme is not new and is turning into a collective stress that kicks off at 3pm on Sunday. At this point, the suspicion that something or someone in the strategy department is not working, risks becoming a certainty. This is not about looking for a scapegoat. But, perhaps, behind closed doors, to redo the ‘carburetion’. To change a mentality that is often prudent to the point of becoming an own goal; to adopt a more aggressive attitude. Also because conservative choices have generated unhappy outcomes.” – the Italian newspaper reports.