Former Scuderia Ferrari press officer Alberto Antonini write an article for formulapassion.it in which he revealed that part of the Ferrari staff (initially) refused to take part in the podium ceremony and the team photoshoot after the end of the race in Silverstone. This comes after the Italian side made some highly criticized strategy calls by not pitting Charles Leclerc for new soft tyres when the Safety Car was deployed in the final stages of the British Grand Prix, which led to Charles finishing outside the podium.
Here is the moment as recalled by Alberto Antonini:
“I was told – and I trust the source – about an unedifying episode that took place immediately after the Silverstone race in the winners’ garage. A part of the Ferrari staff would have refused, at least initially, to attend the podium ceremony and the usual photos. If it is true, as I fear, it is not a good sign. A bit of healthy rivalry within the garage is fine, every mechanic and every technician must cheer for “his” driver, but the common interest must be to aim to win. To win the race and then, of course, also the world championship, indeed the world championships.” – wrote Alberto Antonini, who was the head of Scuderia Ferrari’s Formula 1 press office until earlier 2019.
“Even more than the highly-commented episode of Charles Leclerc’s failure to be called back to the pits for the tyre change, the experts are perplexed by those ten laps in which Charles, faster, asked for a way and the pitwall remained silent (and no one could image at that moment that a safety car would arrive to regroup everyone). If I could give a suggestion, I would tell them to put behind a race which, from an image point of view, seems to have transformed a victory into a defeat. Just look at the comments on the Scuderia’s Facebook profile. For this writer, social media is a thorn in that place; but they exist and neglecting them today is not always a good policy. So, I was saying, if I could make a suggestion, I would first of all think about healing that far from serene atmosphere that seems to have established itself within the Ferrari Racing Department. But then, as Charles Leclerc would say, who am I to make suggestions? The important thing is to safeguard the final result, otherwise it might be hard to explain to the world what happened. Especially for a communication that resides in Maranello but, at its highest levels, does not speak Italian.” – Alberto Antonini concluded.
