“Everything that happens in the team is my responsibility. The strategy is chosen at the pitwall then the drivers contribute with their indications, with what they see and feel on track.” – Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto takes the blame, as the Monaco Grand Prix defeat was the result of a chain of indecisions: “We made the wrong calls and strategies. We underestimated the performance of the intermediate tires. And if someone finishes fourth when he was in the lead, something is wrong. We had the means and we didn’t use them. Charles is right to be angry.” – With the intermediate tyres, in fact, Sergio Perez was flying. Carlos Sainz insisted on continuing and waited for the dry compounds to be used. Charles Leclerc could also have stayed out and kept going, as he waited for the track to get dry before making the pit stop.
The winning strategy? “It would have been to stop Charles one lap after Perez instead of two. Or stay inside with the tires for extreme wet conditions, keep the position and then stop calmly.” – That calm that went completely haywire among the strategists yesterday, and it is not the first time it has happened in Monaco against Charles Leclerc: in 2019 he was penalized in qualifying by an incorrect calculation of track evolution: forced to start sixteenth, his race was shattered. And that’s why Charles’ anger was so explicit, because another blunder in his home race just wasn’t supposed to happen.
“And in any case – continues Mattia Binotto – these are delicate situations, especially here in Monaco where GPS data for the characteristics of the track are scarce and communications with the drivers are more difficult than elsewhere”.
But why was Carlos Sainz not called to the pits immediately after Sergio Perez? Did he choose the strategy? The Spaniard is convinced that it was the right choice, he claims to have lost the victory due to the traffic, more specifically because of Nicholas Latifi who did not let him pass for half of the Monte Carlo lap: “When I returned on track I made ten corners without overtaking a lapped car (Latifi, again him: the ‘referee’ of the 2021 Formula 1 season finale in Abu Dhabi ed), I lost 2 seconds, Sergio Perez was also lucky this time.”
Carlos Sainz’s point of view is flawless, but at the same time he had Charles Leclerc to protect in the championship, as Max Verstappen with a third place extended hsi lead by another three points. According to Mattia Binotto, Carlos Sainz was initially told to pit, then there was a change of plans: “A few corners before the pitlane, we realized that Sergio Perez was so fast that he would have been in front anyway and so we decide to leave him out” .
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But the team principal also points the finger at the race direction, and against the questionable choices of the stewards: «The mistakes are ours, but I have sense of injustice. 3 minutes before the start of the race, the Red Bull was without tires (the tyres must be on the cars with at least five minutes before the race start) and they delayed the starting procedures. And then the question of the yellow lines. Incredible. We were not interested in protesting against Red Bull, we are not interested in entering this type of competition with them. But we expect clarity and consistency in decisions from the FIA.” – the Ferrari boss added.
Both Ferrari appeals, on Perez and Verstappen, were rejected by the stewards. The Federation then explained that the starting procedures were delayed due to an electrical blackout due to the storm: no traffic lights or light signals worked. Mattia Binotto is also angry with the Williams drivers: “Latifi and Albon who lap 4 ‘slower than others and do not let the leader of the race pass despite the blue flags.”
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