Scuderia Ferrari has confirmed that it attempted to trick Red Bull into moving to a two-stop strategy at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi and was successfully thanks to a “dummy” team radio message.
The Mexican started the race from second place and kept his position ahead of Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc, as the two drivers were fighting for second place in the Drivers’ championship. Charles and the Red Bull man were were tied ahead of the final round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, which meant it was crucial for the Maranello team to find a pay past the Mexican.
As the Red Bull RB18 car seemed to have a bit more pace than the F1-75 in Abu Dhabi, the Italian side was aware that the strategy would be the only way to finish ahead of Sergio Perez.
As Charles was gradually recovering the gap to the Mexican, Ferrari forced Red Bull into making a fast decision on lap 33, by giving the impression that it would attempt an undercut move. Over the team radio, Charles Leclerc was informed to “box opposite to Red Bull.”
Yet Ferrari did not in fact want to pit Charles Leclerc, as the Maranello team was focused on a strategy with just one pit stop and hoped that the Austrian side would react and be the one to call its driver for an early stop which would imply a second pit later in the race. The move was successfully as Red Bull took the bait and Sergio Perez was immediately called to the pits to cover off the Italian side’s possible undercut.
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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that their decision was based on several factors, such as Sergio Perez’s tyre degradation alongside seeing that “Ferrari were gearing up for an undercut”. As Charles Leclerc continued on track, this meant that Ferrari won track position and now had to focus on managing the tyres and race pace for the second part of the race, with Sergio Perez having to recover more than 22 seconds lost with the tyre change. Thanks to a great tyre management from Charles Leclerc and a little help from Lewis Hamilton, who battled the Mexican for two laps, which allowed Charles to gain a few crucial seconds, meant the Monegasque was able to defend his second place finish, which also secured P2 in the final Drivers’ championship.
When asked about the strategy for the Abu Dhabi Grand prix, Charles Leclerc explained: “I have to say that everything that we’ve done was exactly what we wanted to do. That’s what was planned before. The laps where, I can say it now, where we dummied him and made him think that we were going to pit opposite. He took it and went for the second stop. So we did everything perfect. I’m very proud of our execution.” – he added.
Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto wanted to highlight the good job made by his pit wall at the Yas Marina circuit, especially taking into consideration the fact that this was one of the key issues encountered by the Italian side during the 2022 Formula 1 season, with several mistakes made by the Maranello pitwall this year, which led to important points being lost against Red Bull:
“I think that certainly the dummy call on the Red Bull was a fantastic call from the pits. I think it’s great for the team It is great for the strategists, and it is great having done a solid race weekend this weekend. I think P2 and P2 [in the drivers’ and constructors’ championship] has been the balance of the entire season, not only today. But today certainly we did the proper job. The dummy pitstop on the Red Bull was the right call. And I think that overall, we made it right. So happy for them, happy for the team. I think that as well Ferrari, when it is making mistakes, there is always a lot of criticism. But, as well, I know that these guys can do very well.” – Mattia Binotto pointed out.
Charles Leclerc expressed his satisfaction for a strong weekend in Abu Dhabi and a flawlessly executed strategy, which was all the more impressive given the additional pressure on the team due to the fight for second place in both standings and most importantly the speculation regarding Mattia Binotto possibly being replaced by Frédéric Vasseur at the end of the season:
“We executed the right one, and the one with the most pressure. Obviously, the outside pressure with all the rumours going around coming into the weekend, and the pressure of keeping the second place in the drivers’ and constructors’ championship. We managed to perform at our best in a situation like this, which makes me very proud of the team. I don’t think that in pure pace we were stronger than Red Bull. I think Red Bull was still stronger than we were. But we pushed them into doing mistakes and pushed them into two stops and eventually that paid off. So we’re very happy.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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