In the end, the Q1 exclusion in the qualifying session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix cost a lot to the Maranello team, with a compromised weekend for Carlos Sainz that ultimately allowed Mercedes to prevail in the battle for the second place in the constructors’ championship. On paper, the Spaniard should have opted for a hard-hard-soft strategy, but the pit wall waited until the last lap, hoping for a Safety Car or a red flag.
Fred Vasseur explains the strategy adopted with Carlos Sainz in the last stint
“When you are forced to return to the pits on the 20th lap, there is no other choice than to put on a second set of hards because if you put on the mediums, you have to pit on the 30th lap,” stated the team principal of Ferrari after the race.
According to regulations, Carlos Sainz would have had to make a second stop necessarily to meet the obligation of using two different compounds in the race, following what happened with Oscar Piastri in the last Grand Prix in Las Vegas.
“The option was to put on the hards and expect a Safety Car or a red flag,” added Fred Vasseur. “The others did 15, 20 laps with the mediums and then 40 laps with the hards. The goal was to do 40 laps with the hards to have a part of the race in clean air and try to offset some of the deficit.”
However, the Spaniard never showed the pace and consistency in lap times to extend the stints as his colleagues or Charles Leclerc did. Carlos, in fact, returned to the pits for the first stop on lap 20, much earlier than initially expected. This forced the pit wall to rethink the strategy on the fly with him, without, however, producing any particular effects.
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However, Fred Vasseur believes that any strategy would not have worked with Carlos Sainz yesterday afternoon: “You can always try to replay the race and do the opposite. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think the problem was the pace today, not the hards or the mediums.”
“The problem was not a matter of strategy but of pace. Today we didn’t have the pace, and in this case, all the strategies are the wrong ones.”
To avoid the now inevitable disqualification following a gamble that evidently did not pay off, Ferrari could do nothing else but retire the SF23 of the Spaniard. Despite Charles Leclerc’s splendid second place, Mercedes was able to celebrate the title of vice-champion of the 2023 Formula One season, with the hope that 2024 will see the prancing horse play a leading role.
Source: f1ingenerale
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