Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto feels that, regardless of the strategy decisions made by the Maranello team in the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix last Sunday, the F1-75 cars did not have the pace needed to fight against Red Bull and Max Verstappen for the race win at the Hungaroring circuit.
The Italian side seemed at one stage to be in a great position to secure the race win in Hungary, but eventually once again faced scrutiny after dropping in the second part of the race, despite despite leading ahead of the final round of pit stops.
After starting from third place, Ferrari’s championship challenger Charles Leclerc passed his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz in the first round of pit stops, thanks to a great stint on the medium tyres and a slightly slow pit stop for the Spaniard. The Monegasque then went on to overtake the Mercedes W13 of George Russell and take the lead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
At this stage, Ferrari looked set to take the race win and at least a third place finish with Carlos Sainz, but Charles Leclerc’s advantage was immediately wiped out when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen attempted to undercut the Ferrari F1-75 cars by performing his last pit stop first. Without any other medium tyres, the Maranello team did not continue on track and decided to call Charles Leclerc in to mount the hard tyres, which proved to be a very poor tactical choice, as the Monegasque driver struggled for tyre temperatures and had no chance of staying ahead of his championship rival.
As Charles Leclerc’s pace worsened and Ferrari became aware of the problem, the Italian side made a third stop for a fresh set of tyres, sending Charles to sixth place, without any more time to recover. Ahead of his stint on hard tyres, Charles Leclerc’s pace suggested that he was comfortable in the lead, with Max Verstappen only becoming a factor when he made an early final stop, but many feel that with a strong final stint on softs, the Monegasque would have been able to challenge the Dutchman for the race win in the final laps.
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Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was asked if the F1-75 cars had the fundamental pace to keep up the Red Bull of Max Verstappen in the fight for the Hungarian Grand Prix win, despite the strategy options available: “don’t think so,” – the Ferrari team principal explained – “What we were lacking was really speed and pace, and I don’t think we could have won today. I don’t know the reasons for this, because it’s first time in many races that we didn’t have the speed to be there for the victory. So we need to look into that performance to understand. I’m pretty sure that when we understand that, we will also understand why the tyres were not working properly.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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