Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur has revealed that Charles Leclerc’s track position prompted the side’s ill-timed switch to Intermediates in Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.
Leclerc was striving to rebound from a shock Q2 exit at Silverstone and he made up three places at the start to be situated two spots behind team-mate Carlos Sainz.
However, the Monegasque’s race would unravel as he got caught up in a train behind Lance Stroll’s slow Aston Martin and was unable to pass until Lap 13 into Stowe.
With Leclerc having lost ground on the leading pack ahead, Ferrari attempted to gamble on the expected rainfall getting heavier to pit him to Intermediates on Lap 19.
But the track conditions hadn’t deteriorated enough at that point and Leclerc ended up losing sizeable time which he was unable to retrieve across the remaining laps.
Vasseur has insisted the choice was “on the edge” of being the correct one and has explained how Leclerc being out of position contributed to his downfall in the race.
“We are giving them information, and we are proposing the call, the fact that at one stage they have to pit, and they have to do the last call,” Vasseur explained.
“On this situation, and I discussed with Charles, for sure we can be disappointed when you see the result at the end, but first it’s clear that it was not the right call, or the right decision.
“But I would say that it’s also motivated by the fact that at this stage we are already 15 seconds behind Carlos, or 10 seconds behind Carlos.
“It means that consciously or unconsciously, you know that the only way to come back and to fight for the podium, is to be a bit aggressive into the decision.
“For sure it’s not the right call, because I think he would have finished P6, but collectively we took this decision.
“And I don’t want to say it’s a good one, because the reality is that it’s not a good one, but I’m not upset with this.
“Because if you have a look at the same lap, Hamilton went wide in Turn 1, Russell went wide in Turn 1, another car went wide in Turn 15.
“It was really on the edge to become the very good call.
“And when you are in the situation to be in the group of leaders, you will never take this risk. You will copy the others, and it’s what Carlos said and did.”
Meanwhile, Sainz capitalised on McLaren electing not to doublestack its cars upon the optimal moment to discard the slicks to seize fourth place from Oscar Piastri.
But Piastri executed an undercut during the crossover back to slicks late in proceedings to retrieve the position, with Ferrari’s deficit leaving him unable to battle back.
Vasseur has shielded the pit wall from criticism, though, as he is adamant that the onus shifts more to the driver to take control with strategic calls in mixed conditions.
“On these conditions, quite often it’s the driver who is in control of the situation,” the Frenchman reiterated.
“Because what we can give, if it’s more than one lap, you have the lap time of the others.
“But if it’s one lap too late or one lap too early, we can give them indication about the situation.
“But for sure, after the race, you can say that it would have been better for [Lando] Norris and for Carlos to pit one lap before. But I can’t bring my crystal ball on the pit wall.”
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