Charles Leclerc Hungary
Charles Leclerc Hungary
Ferrari, one of the most storied teams on the grid is set to throw away another chance of winning a title since 2018 when they had Sebastian Vettel spearheading their chase. Since the team’s dominant performance in Bahrain at the start of the season, the team has struggled to get a grip of themselves with each race that has passed and this past weekend at Hungary may have been the last straw for the team. So what really was the team thinking? Who’s to blame? Who should be fired? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we do, consider subscribing to the channel to get updated on our latest uploads. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.
Ferrari had an unbelievable season as the Scarlett team galloped ahead of everyone to a 34-point lead in the Drivers ‘championship and Charles Leclerc looked like the next Ferrari driver as the Monegasque scored the maximum points in 2 of the first 3 races. But since then, the Monegasque has only 1 of the following 10 and is now on his backfoot as he trails Red bull’s Max Verstappen by a whopping 80 points.
This huge lead would mean that even if Charles wins every race after the summer break, it would still be impossible for him to win the title. While some were of his own wrongdoings, the majority of it has been the team and their inability to think on the fly and make the right calls at the right moment. Exhibit A would be at Charles’ home race in Monaco where the Monegasque driver had his first win at his home race within his grasp but was then taken away by his own team and their strategic blunder.
And from then things would not get any better for Charles who would DNF the next race in Azerbaijan. had to start at the back of the grid for an engine penalty he had to take in Canada after his last one blew out in Baku. Then the team would make a judgment call on Charles’ race at Silverstone where the team would choose to only pit his teammate Carlos Sainz under the safety car when the 2 had the perfect gap between them for the team to double stack.
Austria would be the only pleasant race for Charles who where he would win in thrilling fashion but would plummet back down to his reality with a DNF in France and a horrid finish to the Hungarian Grand Prix after the team’s worst strategic decision thus far. If we count off every race Charles has lost because of the team’s doings, it would be 6 out of the past 13 races this season. And after the Hungarian Grand Prix, people could see on the Monegasque face that he has passed the point of frustration and just looked helpless and defeated. In his post-race interview Charles would say:
“A race like this is frustrating and we need to get better as a whole. It feels like there is always something going wrong – reliability, mistakes, whatever. We need to be better at putting a weekend together. We were strong, we probably had the pace to win, but eventually we didn’t and there are reasons for it. And stopping for the hard tyre was the turning point of the race. We lost all our pace, and the last part of the race was a disaster for me. Before thinking abut the championship we need to understand as a team what we need to do to get better, because otherwise winning it is going to be very difficult. Now, we will try to use the few days we have to reset, but also try to analyse and understand where we need to be better and what we can do to be better because it is extremely important.”
This frustration came after the baffling decision the team made to pit Charles on a set of medium tires that were only 18 laps old and then put him on a set of hard tires that every other seemed to have discarded from their deck as early as the practice sessions. This decision meant that Charles had to pit again for the 3rd time for a set of softs that completely knocked him out of contention for a podium finish.
The decision was so baffling that even Red Bull’s Max Verstappen pointed out Ferrari’s blunder in his post race interview saying:
“You cannot afford any mistakes if you want to fight for the championship. Ferrari chose the wrong tyres in their final stint. Before then, they were quite strong. We put the right tyres on the car today and that was the most important thing to get right.”
Charles would then share in his post-race interview that he had told the team that he felt great on the mediums and that he wanted to prolong his stint up until he could get the softs in the perfect window.
“I think my second stint should have been longer. The first stint was the right moment to stop and we did the right choice there, but on the second stint there, I don’t know exactly why we cut it short and went on the hard. I’m pretty sure that this was a call to put us under pressure, but I don’t think we should have reacted to that because then it was a snowball effect for us and we lost a lot more than we should have.”
Every F1 fan and spectator knew that this one was on the team and expected team boss Mattia Binotto to be remorseful and own up for Charles’ loss. But that wouldn’t be the case yet again, as the Ferrari team boss would stay confident in the team’s strategic decision saying:
“Based on our data and our analysis, we knew the hard was not as fast as the medium, but it could have been as fast 11 laps into the stint… Yes, it didn’t work and we would not have fitted them had we known they would be as bad. I think it’s important to say the pace of the car today was not as expected, [considering] the speed we had when we look back to Friday and the race simulations from Friday. It was totally different conditions, cooler but overall the speed today was not quick enough, whichever tyres we were using. We recently had the right strategy in France, in Austria too, so most of the time we’re right. Sometimes we make mistakes, but others make them too, they just don’t look too closely. No, it’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well. I think it’s always a matter of continuous learning and building, building experience, building skills, and today certainly there is something in which we need to look and understand why. I think we simply need to address what has gone [on] today, that we need to first understand, and then to address and try to be back competitive as it has been in 12 races so far and no reason why it cannot be the case at the next.”
It is these exact words that made many fans and former F1 driver David Coulthard believe that both Sainz and Leclerc has lost all confidence in the team saying:
They could have gone soft and accepted that was a short tyre, but at that time we were all wondering is the weather going to break? Then it would have left them options thereafter, but in going on the same tyre again, we know they then have to go one direction or the other, and because of the length of the final stint, they’ve obviously thought the hard tyre is the way to go. But it wasn’t the way to go on Friday with higher track temperatures, 26c today [Sunday], as you get cooler conditions, that brings you out of the window of the hard tyre even more. So it’s almost like the strategy side of their team, has gone ‘well all the information we have tells us don’t do this, but actually we’re going to do this’. That’s the thing which is so unbelievable about it,” he continued, “and that’s where they may not have lost the driving ability of their drivers, but they must be losing the confidence.
Many of the Tifosi also believe that Binotto’s time is up with the team as the Swiss-born Italian team boss has been at the helms for too long without winning a title for the team. And former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher believes that Binotto may lose it this summer break saying:
“I already see him in danger during the summer break. There are too many little things that went wrong and too many technical problems. If you get a gift like this, being able to drive for the World Championship and then you endangered it and throw it away, that’s already bitter. It was obviously a tough weekend. Wrong decision on Friday because you used up the tyres you would have needed in the race. That was bitter for Ferrari. The last stop by Leclerc was incomprehensible to me. You have two more there too places given away.”
And there you have it guys. So what do you think? Should Binotto be fired by the season’s end at the very least? And should Charles be more assertive when it comes to strategy? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
