F1, Ferrari: why risk inters on driver without penalties this weekend? | 2022 Brazil GP

12/11/2022 13:08

“Am I the only one on the intermediate?” Charles Leclerc asked once he was positioned to leave the Pit Lane. “Yes, we think you are the only one on that compound.” Replied his track engineer Xavier Marcos Padros.

Scuderia Ferrari expected rain in a minute, hence the decision to try to anticipate the moment with the Monegasque driver. However, Charles Leclerc understood early on that the expected rain wall was just a mirage. “It is not raining here,” he said over the team radio in the last corner of his outlap, hoping for a quick order to return to the pits. However, the pit wall of the Maranello team continued to bet on the rain within a few seconds, while other drivers set the first times with Soft tires and a practically dry track. After the first real lap started on Intermediates, in the pits they noticed the error and called Charles back for the pit stop, but at this stage it was already too late as George Russell’s error generated a red flag that meant everyone kept their positions and then the rain started to intensify so there was no room for improvement.

“We were expecting rain, which didn’t arrive, at least not on schedule,” Charles Leclerc said at the end of qualifying. “I will speak with the team to understand what we can do better in situations like this. But I’m incredibly disappointed because the pace was there”. The decision to mount the intermediate tyre was made primarily by the team and confirmed by the driver. What is perplexing is the reason for the aggressive choice made for the driver that Ferrari should focus on this weekend, given the fact that Carlos Sainz has to take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix due to the replacement of the internal combustion engine.

Carlos Sainz lost the chance to fight for pole position due to a mistake at the Senna esses, although even without that error the Spaniard would most likely not have had the speed to match the pace in the first part of the lap: “The weather and the choice of tires were absolutely crazy, especially in Q3 where there were very difficult conditions.” said the Spanish Ferrari driver. “We tried to be the first to cross the finish line, but we lost a lot of time behind Charles and consequently a lot of time on Kevin, which meant he probably had a drier track than ours at that point.” The Spaniard then tried to push, at as a result he maybe went too far in several points. “I made some big mistakes, which probably cost me P2 or P3, but P1 today is for Kevin, I think he deserved it. I’m a big fan of him and I’m happy for him.” – Carlos concluded.

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For the fourth time this season, the Ferrari pitwall makes an inexplicable choice which is front of everyone’s eyes, yet another confirmation that the Italian team is clearly not ready to compete for the World championship from this point of view. A similar mistake was seen in Japan in 2018, when both Ferrari cars took to the track with intermediate tires on a dry circuit.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto refuses to point the finger at the moment, at least publicly, keeping more of a Stefano Domenicali-like management and different from the previous one (Maurizio Arrivabene). However, some important decisions are expected in the coming winter.

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