Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has conceded there are pangs of regret about the team’s decision to opt for dry tyres for the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
The Scuderia looked in good shape to challenge at Sepang, with Lewis Hamilton set to refresh his rivalry with polesitter Max Verstappen, having grabbed second on the grid.
But after an hour-long rain delay and a further 40-minute delay due to an FIA software glitch, a game of chicken ensued as to which teams would use which tyre.
With the track holding moisture but drying significantly, Ferrari opted to bolt on Slick tyres, with the majority of the field – including Verstappen – to start on Intermediates.
This cost Hamilton and Charles Leclerc significantly, the pair tumbling down the order. But Hamilton overrode instruction to pit for Inters, and stuck it out, ultimately beginning a stellar comeback drive.
Hamilton would finish third after a late overtake on Isack Hadjar, completing a typically measured but bullish performance from the seven-time World Champion.
After the race, Vasseur was asked about the team’s decision, which may have cost Hamilton a genuine shot at victory.
“When you have to take your decision, you are trying to base the decision on good parameters,” he replied.
“But for sure, at the end of the day, we have to be clear, that it was not the right call [and] that it would have been much better for us to start with [the] Inter.”
Ferrari made choice ‘with the info we had’, admits Vasseur
With teams most likely looking at each other in the build-up to the eventual start, Vasseur believed that, at the time, it was a healthy mix of teams that went for dry.
“Based on our feeling on the grid, I think 50 percent of the car went for Slick, 50 for wet,” the Frenchman continued. You just have a look on the tarmac in front of you in the pit lane, and for sure it was not a good one.
“But no, it’s not that I have no regrets. For sure, it’s clear that it was better to start with the Inter, but we did the choice with the information that we had.”
Vasseur added: “I was not a mega optimist after Lap 1, yet you never know. Also, because of the dirty air, it’s much more difficult and energy management, and so that.
“But the pace was solid, and when Lewis was at the end of his stint with Soft, he was still cruising in very good lap time.”
Hamilton said after the race that he and the team would come to a conclusion on why the wrong decision was taken, enforcing his spectacular recovery.
Leclerc also nabbed Hadjar in the closing stages, finishing fourth and nullifying the damage done in the Constructors’ Championship by Verstappen’s first win of the season.
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