Scuderia Ferrari team boss admitted his side will take a detailed investigation back at its Maranello factory during the next few days in order to completely understand why it has made several strategy mistakes in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Maranello team secured a front row lockout on Saturday and was the clear favourite for the Monte Carlo race, until heavy rain at the start of the event made things difficult for Ferrari. Still, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were running in a commanding position at the front, before a series of mistakes cost Charles Leclerc the race win and more points lost against his title rival Max Verstappen.
Red Bull had nothing to lose with Sergio Perez in third place and Max Verstappen in P4 so they decided to go for an aggressive strategy and were the first to switch the Mexican driver on intermediate tyres on the damp but drying track. Ferrari then had to react but got the timings and choices for Charles Leclerc’s absolutely wrong.
First, the Italian side pitted Charles Leclerc too late for inters, which allowed Sergio Perez to get ahead of then, the Ferrari should have waited a bit more before changing to slicks. The poorly timed stop on the same lap as teammate Carlos Sainz cost the Monegasque more time and resulted in another position lost, time time to Max Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc admitted at the end of the Monaco Grand Prix that his team had made too many mistakes which should not happen given the close battle for the championship againt Red Bull. Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was the first to admit that his team had made some major strategy errors, but the most important thing now is to understand the factors that contributed to its decision-making process.
“I think we need to admit that if you’re leading the race, and you’re finding yourself in first position, then we may have done something wrong,” he admitted. “So we made certainly mistakes in our judgement and we made mistakes in our calls. Now, what’s the process which brought us to make mistakes? I think the first mistake was underestimating the pace of the intermediate and the gap we had to the other cars, in terms of track position. I think we made a mistake as well, because we should have called him earlier, at least a lap earlier, or if not, as we did, we should have stayed out and simply stayed on the extreme wet protecting the position and then maybe switching directly onto the dries. Now that we made mistakes, I think it’s straightforward. What was the process bringing them that brought us to that? It will take some more time to look at it and have a clear explanation.” – the Ferrari boss explained.
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At the same time, Mattia Binotto is aware that the final result was also affected by the direct involvement of other drivers who slowed down both Charles and Carlos. The Spanish driver, who was on the right strategy when he moved from wets to slicks, was held up on his out lap by Nicholas Latifi and that allowed Sergio Perez to recover enough time to stay ahead after his pit stop for slicks. Furthermore, on his super swift intermediate lap, Sergio Perez was helped by not getting held up by Lando Norris who pitted out of his way, allowing the Mexican driver to set a very fast lap time.
Asked if luck was also on Red Bull’s side in Monaco, Mattia Binotto added: “No, we don’t think we have been unlucky. There is not a matter of being lucky or unlucky. I think we made mistakes in our judgements. When you’re leading the race here in Monaco, you should be in position, if not keeping the lead, at least finishing second. Finishing fourth is showing that we made something wrong. I don’t think it’s a matter of being lucky or unlucky.” – he said.
Charles Leclerc was obviously very disappointed with the outcome of the Monaco Grand Prix in front of his home fans, but pointed out that detailed talks and evaluations were needed to better understand why it had messed up: “I think the answers, we’ll get them a bit later on,” he said. “Obviously it was a complex situation.We’ll have quite a bit of meetings in the next few days to understand that as a team. And so for now we still need to discuss a bit more, and to go a bit more into details.” – the Monegasque driver concluded.
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