Scuderia Ferrari expected a higher degradation of the soft tyres in the final laps of the 2022 British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit, which did not happen: the team radio message sent to Charles Leclerc in the final laps at Silverstone confirms the wrong evaluation made by the Maranello team.
The final laps of the British Grand Prix are the highlight of the British race. The arrival of the Safety Car on the track turned the tables while Ferrari was leading the race with Charles Leclerc, followed by his teammate Carlos Sainz, as the Maranello team made yet another questionable decision. At the end of lap 39 Ferrari decided to keep Charles Leclerc on the track and call Carlos Sainz to the pits, who was immediately followed Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez, to mount a new soft compound.
With the Safety Car on the track, the standings now saw the Monegasque at the top, but with used hard tires. The rest of the group made up of Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso, all with fresh soft tires, were behind him in view of the restart.
A few laps behind the safety car and the race resumed, but at this point Charles Leclerc could do very little. Defending the “track position” in the Safety Car period was of little use, as the much faster pace if the rivals inevitably hit the mark after a stoic defense by the Ferrari driver. Carlos Sainz passes, Sergio Perez passes, Lewis Hamilton also passes: Charles Leclerc from a probable victory is forced to “settle” for a disappointing P4 at the end of the British Grand Prix.
But let’s rewind the tape. The strategy taken by the Italian side with the man who is fighting for the world championship made many people raise their eyebrows even at the moment the events were unfolding at Silverstone. Yet the team radio message of the Ferrari pit wall to Charles Leclerc on lap 40 of the race seems to provide a different assessment of the Maranello team, which later turned out to be incorrect.
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Charles Leclerc asks Marcos about the coverage situation regarding the tyres and degradation. The track engineer replies: “We believe that the soft tire is 5 tenths faster on the first lap”. The radio team concludes: “After that it will have a higher degradation”.
In fact, the Friday race simulations had provided those indications to Ferrari. On Sunday, however, the situation was different, as demonstrated by the more than 30 laps on medium tires which were completed by Hamilton, by Perez, Norris and Vettel, for example.
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