Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger believes the Maranello team should be cut some slack for their Monaco Grand Prix strategy mistakes which handed the win to Red Bull and sent Charles Leclerc outside the podium.
Ferrari started the Monaco Grand Prix from the first two places on the grid and would have hoped for a dry race to easily manage the lead and secure a one-two finish with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Sadly the outcome was completely different: the race start was delayed as a result of heavy rain and took place on a drying track, which made things difficult for the Maranello team. Ferrari made a series of strategy errors when Charles Leclerc changed his full wets: the Monegasque driver, who knows the streets of Monte Carlo very well, made a stop for intermediate tyres on lap 18 at the same time as his World Championship rival Max Verstappen.
However, just three laps later, Ferrari made the decision to call him back in to the pits again for hard tyres in a double stack behind his team-mate Carlos Sainz, who had skipped the inters and remained on track with the used full wet tyres, which were very slow at this stage given the dry track.
A mix-up with conflicting instructions over the team radio exacerbated the situation and consequently Charles Leclerc returned to the circuit in fourth place, behind his team-mate and the two Red Bull cars.
Nothing could be salvaged from that point given the difficulty in overtaking at Monaco and Sergio Perez easily went on to win the race ahead of Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. As a result, Charles Leclerc is now behind in the Drivers Standings by nine points, ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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It was a disappointing outcome for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, in a race when the Monegasque driver was hoping to finally put an end to his home race jinx.
But Gerhard Berger, who raced for the Maranello team in two periods comprising a total of six championships, winning five races for Ferrari, feels this Grand Prix should be put into context alongside the team’s huge improvement in the 2022 Formula One campaign, as Ferrari proved capable of designing a strong car based on the new rules and regulations.
“Ferrari are being criticised too much for the tactical mistakes last Sunday,” the Austrian said in a recent interview for La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We should really congratulate Mattia Binotto for the strong car he has managed to put on the track because we hadn’t expected that just a few months ago.” – he added.
While Monaco was deeply disappointing for Charles Leclerc, it was at least a confidence booster for Carlos Sainz after a difficult period for the Spanish driver in the last few races of the 2022 Formula One season. In Monaco, Carlos scored his fourth podium of the season:
“After seven rounds, Sainz is still dreaming of the World Championship and rightly so – he is not far from the top, don’t discount him,” Gerhard Berger continued – “Overall, Ferrari have recovered and in Monaco had the better car. Second and fourth is no disaster.” – he concluded.
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