Almost nothing to complain about regarding the tactical choices made by Scuderia Ferrari in the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix, a race in which Charles Leclerc finished in fifth place, just ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz. The only negative impression from Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was the big gap to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the end of the race.
The pace shown by Carlos Sainz combined with the graining problems encountered by Charles Leclerc made the Maranello team’s decision to reverse positions to attempt an attack on the fourth position with the N.55 car strategically right. Too bad Pierre Gasly was really faster this time. The positions were once again reversed in the final lap of the Mexican event between the two Ferrari drivers, given the fact that Carlos had no chance of getting close to the AlphaTauri car (seven seconds was the the minimum gap reached by Carlos Sainz against the Frenchman).
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Pit stops are finally back to being very fast, the only drawback is the moment chosen by Scuderia Ferrari for Charles Leclerc’s stop. In those laps, Charles was setting good times on the Medium tires and the gap to Pierre was narrowing (around 3 ‘). Perhaps distracted by the Mercedes stop, which had placed Hamilton right behind Charles Leclerc, the Italian team decided it was better to stop instead of trying to waste time in an uneven battle with Lewis Hamilton’s W12.
Unfortunately, the pit stop that occurred during the 31st lap would put Charles Leclerc immediately behind Fernando Alonso, greatly limiting the strength of his undercut. The Monegasque manages to overtake the Spaniard during the 32nd lap just as his rival Pierre Gasly was about to make the cover stop. On his return to the track, the gap with Charles Leclerc is only 1’8. The position was now safe and Ferrari lost the best opportunity to pass defeat the AlphaTauri in the battle for fourth place.
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