Ferrari France
Ferrari France
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was supposed to be Max Verstappen’s worthy adversary this season with how the 2 looked at the first race of the season. But we’re one race away from the summer break, and Charles has now fallen way off Verstappen’s pace in the drivers’ standings all thanks to his untimely shunts and his team ‘s strategical and engineering blunders. So what caused Leclerc’s recent shunt at the French Grand Prix?
Was it really his fault or is it just a cover-up to not make the team look bad? Is Ferrari competent enough strategic wise, to give their drivers the best shot of winning it all this season? Well, you’re going to have to stick around to find out. But before we get to it, consider subscribing to the channel as we upload 4 videos every week at the minimum, just to keep you updated on the latest happenings in the F1 space. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to it…
The French Grand Prix looked like it was set to be another classic between Leclerc and Verstappen during the early stages of the race, with Verstappen consistently being within Leclerc’s DRS range. But that would not be the case as we all know by now that Leclerc would spun out of the race lead at Lap 18 and be forced to retire from the race.
During the incident, the team’s radio conversation would be broadcasted which would pick up Leclerc saying “I cannot go off throttle”. This statement made many believe that the problem for Leclerc’s shunt was the same problem he faced during the Austrian Grand Prix where the Monegasque would report to the team that his throttle would get stuck. This would seem to be supported by his race engineer’s reply who would say:
“Now it’s at 0%” Which would imply that his throttle pedal had finally unstuck itself. But team boss Mattia Binotto would be swift in clarifying this interpretation of Leclerc’s statement and say that Charles had said “ “I cannot go on the throttle” not “I cannot go off the throttle!”
Mattia would then add:
No, first there was no issues with the throttle itself, nothing to do with Austria,” Binotto explained. “What happened is a genuine mistake of Charles which are things that may happen and I think they do not take off how good he is as a driver and as a fantastic driver. But it was a genuine mistake. What you heard on the radio was about when he was in reverse gear trying to get out from the barriers, there is a strategy without going in all the details, that somehow he was on the throttle, didn’t feel sufficient torque from the engine but was nothing wrong. Simply the strategy there.”
The Ferrari team boss would also once and for all clarify the drama in Austria saying:
Normally we’re not discussing much about details on what’s happening, but what happened in Austria is very simple,” he said. There was a damper which was slightly sticky. Not more than that. And we already put in place some actions to avoid it for the future.”
Leclerc would also support Mattia’s statement after the race saying:
“I tried, but there was something with the clutch not working and I couldn’t reverse, which was a shame because I saw the car and the car was actually not too damaged,” Leclerc said. But, this is a detail, honestly. First of all, I need to not put cars in the wall, and then they should work better.”
And to finish out his statement about what had happened, Leclerc would take full blame for the incident saying:
It’s just trying to push too much and I lost the rear,” he said. It’s been a very difficult weekend for me, I struggled a lot with the balance on the car like obviously [Paul] Ricard, but when it’s warm like this, it’s very difficult to be consistent and [it’s] been very difficult to put laps together and I did a mistake at the wrong moment.”
Now although Leclerc and Binotto’s statements are consistent, many fans and pundits are still holding on to Leclerc’s race engineer’s statement of the throttle finally letting off as proof that they may be problems within the F1-75 that the team just does not want to disclose. But in the end we’ll never truly know, but what we do know is that accident cost Leclerc a good chunk of points against Verstappen who now has 66 point lead over Verstappen.
But that would not be the only headache for Ferrari in the French Grand Prix, as the team would also receive scrutiny for how their strategic decisions in handling Carlos Sainz’s race. At Paul Ricard, Sainz had to start at the back of the grid after incurring an engine penalty after blowing out his last engine in Austria. But the Spaniard would cut through the field and see himself challenging Red Bull’s Sergio Perez for a P3 finish during the waning moments of the race.
Sainz at the time had a tire advantage pace-wise but were on the last laps of his used medium tires. While Perez at the time were on a set of slower hard tire. Sainz could be heard discussing with the team whether or not they should stick it out till the end or pit for a new set of tires. The discussion would pause for a moment and Sainz would resume battling with Perez and execute an overtake. While doing so, the 27-year-old driver would be told on the radio to box to which Sainz would reply annoyingly “ not now, not now”, implying that the team wasn’t even looking at the race while they made their call.
Sainz would make the move stick but yet again Ferrari would have everybody scratching their heads and pit Sainz a few moments later. Sainz would serve a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release earlier in the race and would drop down to P5 at the end of the race. Sky Sports F1 analyst and former F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg would comment on Sainz’s race saying:
“I was shaking my head, like ‘what on earth are they doing there? First of all, he was in the middle of a huge battle out on track and his whole team wasn’t watching that anymore, they had their heads down doing their calculations about pit-stop times and they were talking to him in the middle of the wheel-to-wheel action there. I’m like ‘guys, what on earth are you doing? And then Carlos is P3 and comfortably he would have been able to stay there, the tyres would have been fine until the end, and he even had the chance to still get Lewis for P2. Then they bring him in with no chance to go beyond P5 where he ended up. What on earth is going on there? Really, I think it’s time they made some changes there, some serious changes. Terrible judgement there and I can’t explain it. Mattia really needs to get on top of that and make some serious changes there now.”
But even with the scrutiny of the fans and media, Sainz would defend the team and their decisions in his post-race interview saying:
“I think the team has done a very good job on strategy this year. I still believe at Ferrari we get super-criticised for things that other teams might be going through also in their pitstop windows. Every time there’s a tricky moment on strategy we are discussing things, but we are not a disaster like people seem to say we are. It’s just, we like to discuss things, we are open about them – yes, I was in the middle of an overtake but the team believed that was the right lap to stop and come back through the field. I believed that maybe at the time it was maybe better to risk it and stay out and see what happens with the tyres, even if it was a medium tyre on the limit of the life but I had just made it to P3 and I saw a podium position, I thought if I make these tyres last maybe I can finish on the podium. But we will never know. It was a feeling, the team has a lot more data on the computer, they have a lot more numbers to go through, and if they made that decision, I’m 100 per cent convinced they made it with the best of intentions and the best of spirits.”
Team boss Mattia Binotto would also double down on the team’s decision saying:
We don’t feel it’s the right choice, we’re pretty sure it’s the right choice,” Binotto explained. “Because at the time he was short on [tyre] life, so it would have been really risky to go to the end. We don’t think he would have had the pace still to open the gap to five seconds because he had a five-second penalty at the time. And by stopping he did as well the fastest lap which is certainly a point which was granted. So I think that was the safest and the right decision to take.”
And there you have it guys, so what do you think? Did Charles try to cover up the team’s deficiencies or was it really just a mistake Charles has to live with? And do you trust Ferrari to make the right decisions to give both Charles and Carlos the best chance of winning? 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!
