Former Formula 1 world champion and current Sky Sports F1 expert Nico Rosberg feels that Scuderia Ferrari have to make “serious changes” after what he believes was another strategy mistake last weekend at the Paul Ricard circuit in the French Grand Prix. At the same time, the former F1 driver thinks that Charles Leclerc can still turn things around in the title battle against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen despite the fact that the gap is now even bigger after the Monegasque driver retired from the French GP while leading the race.
Ferrari seemed to be in a strong position to continue the series of race wins, but once again in turned into a dramatic weekend for the Maranello team, as Max Verstappen took advantage of Charles Leclerc’s crash to extend his advantage to 63 points in front of the Drivers’ standings ahead of the Hungarian Grand prix, while Carlos Sainz lost out on a possible podium finish as a result of a late pit stop.
Nico Rosberg was asked to share this thoughts on the events which took place at the Paul Ricard circuit and had his say on all the major moments from the French GP, from Charles Leclerc’s crash and whether he should have taken the blame, to Ferrari’s strategy:
“I really think it was premature of Leclerc to take the blame. He needs to go back now, because it’s really very unusual for that to happen in the way it did, because you’re not even pushing to the maximum there, you’re saving tyres. For the rear to go like that, one thing could be at that point, that’s exactly the point when the wind comes from the rear, and if you get an unlucky gust or something, that can suddenly take 20 per cent of your downforce away right in that moment. And also, what was happening with the engine there? It only takes a little bit of a cut or something that can kick out the rear. I really think they need to take some time to look at that because I still can’t believe that it would be a driver mistake.” – Nico Rosberg said – “I also found it was a little bit strange, and I think that’s where Charles was complaining that he was not able to go on throttle because the car I don’t think was even broken? The front wing was broken probably going into the barriers, but I’m surprised he didn’t try and get out of there even more and continue. I’m not sure what happened there.” – he added.
“I was shaking my head at Ferrari’s strategy for Carlos Sainz. What on earth are they doing there? First of all, he was in the middle of a huge battle out on track and his whole team wasn’t watching that anymore, they were down doing their calculations about pitstop times. They were talking to him like in the middle of the wheel-to-wheel action. I thought, guys what are you doing? Then, Carlos is in P3 and comfortably he would have been able to stay there, and the tyres would have been fine until the end. He even had a chance to still get Lewis for P2. Then, they bring him in and there’s no chance to go beyond P5 where he ended up. What an earth is going on there? Really, I think it’s time they made some changes there, some serious changes. Taking the pit stop and not racing until the end and then having the penalty added on… Terrible judgement there, terrible. I can’t explain it. Mattia [Binotto, team boss] really needs to get on top of that and make some serious changes I think there now.” – the 2016 Formula 1 world champion continued.
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“It puts Max Verstappen in a quite comfortable position. The only thing is, let’s not forget, that Ferrari seem to have the better car at the moment. They out-qualified Red Bull and Leclerc was running away with the win as well just before he spun. Everything was going their way. They were able to do their one-stop strategy most likely, things were going really well, so that can give us hope that Leclerc can still stage a comeback in the championship in the remaining races. It’s still to play for.” – Nico Rosberg concluded.
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