Several F1 paddock insiders admitted that a couple of Ferrari heads might be on the chopping block during the summer break after another disaster for the Maranello team, which arrived in Budapest as clear favourites given the track characteristics and somehow once again managed to thorw away even a podium finish at the Hungaroring racetrack.
Former Formula 1 driver and current Sky F1 expert Ralf Schumacher confirmed the decision to put Charles Leclerc on the hard tyre for the second part of the Hungarian Grand Prix was “incomprehensible. I don’t think Red Bull expected help like that,” he said, in an interview for Sky Deutschland after the race.
Even Charles Leclerc admitted to being confused about the thinking behind the tyre strategy in Hungary and about how arguably the fastest car could so obviously be put on the wrong stratgegy, losing the chance to fight against Max Verstappen for the race win: “The hard tyre killed us,” said the Ferrari driver – “We have to get better as a team and understand what we did wrong, because if it happens again, we don’t have a chance.” – he admitted.
While the decision to use the hards seemed like a bizarre choice to many due to the cold temperatures on Sunday, there were also those who believe that Ferrari’s race strategy had actually been determined on Friday at the Hungaroring: “Ferrari had no option but the hard tyre,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff explained – “They only had hard and soft tyres left, and it was too early to put him on softs. Ferrari already made the mistake on Friday by not keeping a set of mediums in hand.”
Championship leader Max Verstappen, who now has an easy task in securing his second F1 title, wanted to partially defend the choices made by the Maranello team in Budapest, but at the same time expressed his appreciation for the way in which Red Bull managed the situation and allowed him to win the race despite starting the race from tenth place: “It’s incredibly important if you want to fight for a championship,” he said.
Verstappen’s father Jos agreed with this view, in an interview for De Telegraaf: “Our decisions aren’t always right, but yes, our mistakes are fewer. That is why we are 80 points ahead.”
Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto for now wanted to defend the strategy calls made by his team and focused on pointing out that the F1-75 was not the fastest car on track, maybe for only the second time this season: “We had the right strategy in France, also Austria, so we’re usually right. Sometimes we make mistakes, but others make them too.”
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Yet it is clear that this situation cannot continue and strategy errors are already costing Scuderia Ferrari its first drivers’ title since 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen took the title for the Italian side.
According to Ralf Schumacher, however, Mattia Binotto’s role as team principal might start to become questioned over time in the context of repeated errors and not being able to capitalize on the speed of the F1-75 car, which most of the times proved the fastest car during the race weekends, but without the Maranello team being able to turn this into positive results: “I see two people’s jobs in danger,” he said. “Daniel (Ricciardo) and also Mattia. When you get the gift of being able to go for the world championship with Ferrari and throw it away so carelessly, it should become difficult for you. So I see him in danger during the summer break. There are too many little things that are going wrong and too many technical problems.” – Ralf Schumacher concluded.
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