Former Formula One driver Ralf Schumacher, the brother of seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher, believes that Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz made too many mistakes during the Imola weekend and points out that the Monegasque driver should have settled for P3 in the Emilia Romagna GP, as that is “key” to winning the Formula 1 world championship.
After a poor start of the race, Charles Leclerc regained one place by overtaking the McLaren of Lando Norris. He then recovered the gap to Sergio Perez, but was not able to get past, also due to lack of DRS in the first half of the race. Ferrari tried to make it happen when he pitted for soft tyres with 13 laps until the end of the race.
While Red Bull covered the undercut by pitting Sergio Perez, as well as race leader Max Verstappen, Ferrari’s plan partially worked as Charles closed the gap to the Mexican driver with the Ferrari man pushing hard to get within DRS. Too hard it seemed.
Charles Leclerc mounted the kerbs at the Variante Alta and went nose first into the barrier, the driver having to pit for a new nose cone and dropping to ninth, before eventually recovering to P6.
Ralf Schumacher thinks his chase was unnecessary, he should have settled for the last place on the podium:
“The car was there, the opportunity was there, only both drivers made too many mistakes this weekend,” he told Sky Germany.
“Leclerc drives over the kerb and just wants too much – in a situation that isn’t necessary at all. He should have accepted taking third place. That’s also the key to a World Championship.”
With Verstappen taking the win ahead of Perez and Leclerc only recovering as high as P6, the Monégasque driver’s lead in the championship was whittled down to 27 points.
Schumacher says the Maranello team now has to evaluate what went wrong on a weekend when Carlos Sainz failed to score although through no fault of his own, the Spaniard collected by Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap.
In a championship in which Scuderia Ferrari seems to be able to challenge for both F1 titles, Ralf Schumacher feels team boss Mattia Binotto must speak to his drivers about taking risks, and when not to.
“It will have to be discussed,” Ralf Schumacher said. “Now the opportunity is there and then everyone has to go along with it. It’s not just about driving a fast lap, it’s about them driving consistently without taking any risks. That just has to be discussed now.” – the former F1 driver concluded.
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