For Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, the 2021 Russian GP ended disappointingly outside the points zone. The Monegasque was able to make a great comeback from the back row despite a longer than expected pit stop and managed to climb up to eighth place in dry track conditions, just behind Max Verstappen. But then, just when the rain that hit Sochi during the last laps seemed to be able to further benefit Ferrari – even approaching Charles close to the podium area – things went wrong for the Maranello team and Charles. Compared to what happened with Carlos Sainz, in fact, the Maranello pit wall got the strategy wrong with the Monegasque driver: the SF21 car number 16 was left on track for one lap too many on dry tires and this destroyed his race.
Speaking to Sky Sport F1 at the end of the race, team principal Mattia Binotto tried to explain what happened. The Ferrari boss admitted the team’s responsibility in the wrong strategy. “When you go from wet to dry, we are the ones who look at the data, to understand the best time to stop. In such cases it is the pit wall that calls the stop – said Mattia Binotto – it is a decision of the engineers”. Today, however, the situation was in reverse, from dry to wet. “Otherwise we rely a lot on the driver – underlined Mattia Binotto – on how long he still thinks he can last in critical conditions with dry tires“.
However, the Ferrari team principal did not want to shift all responsibility for the choice to Charles Leclerc. Indeed, he admitted that in this case the team’s strategic ‘call’ was not ideal: “Charles had done a decent lap time before – acknowledged Mattia Binotto – in our decision to call him for a pit stop we had to realize that in other parts of the circuit it was flooding and therefore it was not possible to stay out. At that moment, in terms of communication, we could have done a little better and this is what we have to improve”, he concluded.
Leave a Reply