Scuderia Ferrari have admitted that they did in fact make an error in the final part of the qualifying session for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend at the Interlagos circuit, when the Italian side decided to sent sending Charles Leclerc out on track with intermediates, despite the track was still dry, which was the first wrong move in a series of unfortunate events that did not allow Charles to set a flying lap and forced him to start the Sprint race from P10 in Brazil.
The rest of the cars which made it to Q3 were all sent on track with slick compounds, despite the fact that incoming rain was threatening, but still had enough time to set a fast lap before the first drops actually fell, unlike Charles Leclerc.
The Maranello team’s wrong tyre decision was followed by another late call, this time to bring the Monegasque back to the pits as fast as possible and change the intermediate tyre with slicks: the team radio team radio exchange between Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari race engineer Xavier Marcos Padros clearly shows that the call was made only after he passed the pit lane entrance, which means Charles was forced to make a second lap on his intermediates.
After Ferrari finally sent him back with slicks, McLaren driver Lando Norris parked his car on the side of the track, leading to a red flag. As the rain increased in intensity, it was clear that for the Monegasque driver there would be no more time to set a flying lap in good track conditions and as a result he finished the qualifying session at the Interlagis circuit in P10.
Scuderia Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto, who wasn’t present in Brazil, but remained in Maranello to work on next year’s project, is aware that his team didn’t make the right call for Charles Leclerc. However, the Ferrari team principal pointed out it could have turned out in their favour had the rain started a bit earlier:
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“Obviously, when you’ve got such weather conditions, it’s always a lottery. As seen by the fact that Kevin [Magnussen] was on pole or [Lewis] Hamilton eighth on the grid and [Sergio] Perez ninth. It’s proving it’s a lot. But we made it wrong, because certainly we were the only one on intermediate at the time and not on slicks. Now those types of mistakes I think in such a lottery situation, they always happen, and those mistakes can turn into the right decision as well. Because it’s only the weather changing that maybe a minute after wasn’t really happening [that could make the decision correct].” – he explained.
Scuderia Ferrari will evaluate the decision-making process that led them to split the strategies between Carlos Sainz on slick tyres and intermediates for Charles Leclerc, as confirmed by Mattia Binotto: “What I’m looking at is, together with the team, what’s the process that brought us to such a decision, which I think is more important rather than the decision itself. Was it right or wrong? Why are we doing that when maybe others didn’t?” – he explained.
The Italian side has faced criticism many times during the 2022 Formula 1 championship due to several bad strategy decisions, especially in Monaco and at the Hungaroring, where Charles Leclerc could have taken the race win without some unacceptable tyre strategy decisions. The future of Mattia Binotto as Ferrari team principal is also uncertain according to recent reports in the media.
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