In addition to the free tyre choice for the 2021 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the red flag on the second lap certainly influenced the race strategies: at that moment 13 drivers decided to change and put on a new set of mediums: Hamilton (Mercedes), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Bottas (Mercedes), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Alonso (Alpine), Stroll (Aston Martin), Ocon (Alpine), Russell (Williams), Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), Latifi (Williams), Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), Mazepin (Haas) and Mick Schumacher (Haas).
All of them, without exception, then managed to finish the race on Hards. The pit stops took place between laps 18 and 29, leading to a one-stop strategy. The first of this group were George Russell and Kimi Raikkonen, while the last was Charles Leclerc. Having replaced the tires during the red flag gave the possibility, especially to the Ferrari drivers and Lewis Hamilton, to lengthen the first stint a lot. In this sense, however, we should congratulate these three drivers for their excellent tire management, as only they and the two AlphaTauri (only 1 pit for them) managed to have such long-lasting stint.
As we can see from the lap chart, the drivers who managed to make proper use of the Medium compound also gained a fair number of positions. The overcut was therefore, in some cases, very powerful. This can be seen from what the two AlphaTauri drivers did (as we have seen Gasly did not score points only because of a puncture, while Tsunoda, despite starting 16th, managed to finish inside the top-10) and from Carlos Sainz.
Extending the stint did little to help Charles Leclerc and Hamilton (with this finding himself having to serve a 10 ” penalty at the time of the pit) against Bottas: the gap between the Monegasque and the Finn was around 8.5 ” before of the pit of Mercedes # 77, while when Charles returned to the track with Hard tires that margin dropped to 7 ”.
The one who benefited the most is Carlos, who started from 10th position, became 8th at the red flag restart and sixth after the slow pit stop. Too bad for the 12 seconds lost due to a problem on the front left, the only mistake made by Ferrari this weekend. Without this issue, the Spaniard could have easily reached 5th position, perhaps with the possibility of also attempting an attack on Norris in the final stages of the race. However, given the outcome of the clash with Daniel, he probably wouldn’t have been able to do better than fifth place, so P6 at the end of the event should still to be considered a great result for him.
Surely at this point you already know all the details of Charles Leclerc’s race by heart, so we can also gloss over some passages. What we can say is that Ferrari showed a really impressive pace yesterday, especially on Medium tires. Hamilton would certainly have been faster in free track conditions, but the fact that Charles Leclerc managed to keep him behind throughout the first stint, despite the power cuts that occurred on his power unit throughout the first part of the GP (the Monegasque has solved it by avoiding changing gears when the issues occurred), is certainly a good sign for the Maranello team. Impeccable tire management, even better than that of Hamilton, who also had to deal with a bit of blistering in some circumstances.
Ferrari has nothing to complain about in terms of strategies. The choice of waiting for the British champion to enter the pits before pitting was perfect. It was the wisest thing to do. The pace was still good: only about 1 ‘/ 1’ 5 were lost to Bottas with the decision to stay out in those 7 extra laps. Unfortunately for the SF21 # 16, however, the pace on the Hard was not even remotely comparable to that of Lewis, who easily freed himself of Norris and Valtteri in a few laps, and was able to launch the attack against Charles during the 50th lap thus taking the victory of his home Grand Prix.
Although some problems re-emerged during the stint on the harder compound C1 (with Charles Leclerc’s front tyres often overheating), Ferrari is making progress on the tire management front. While it is true that the pace with the Hard has dropped compared to the previous stint, it is equally true that the Monegasque has managed to keep an absolutely competitive pace, lower only than that of Hamilton.
In conclusion, what we can say is that Ferrari’s SF21 car still lacks something to maintain a high level of competitiveness on all types of tracks. We have to keep working, but the team seems to be finally on the right track.
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