Toto Wolff defends Ferrari strategies: “Easy for Red Bull to take risks”
08/13/2022 03:40 PM
“It is always difficult to make certain decisions when you are leading the race, for those who chase and have nothing to lose it is much easier to take risks. Red Bull made choices that were more difficult to make for those in the lead” – with these statements reported by the Spanish sports newspaper AS, Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, wanted to defend Scuderia Ferrari, after the Maranello team was highly criticized at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest for another bitter Sunday from the point of view of the tactical choices made by the Ferrari strategists led by Inaki Rueda.
When Red Bull called Max Verstappen to the pits for the second stop just when the rain seemed imminent, the pitwall of the Maranello team decided to protect the track position of Charles Leclerc, leader of the race, Ferrari was faced with a powerful undercut from Red Bull with Max Verstappen, who as a result of the second pit stop overtook both Carlos Sainz and George Russell in the pits without wasting time fighting on the track.
Even the CEO of Ferrari, Benedetto Vigna, asked for an explanation of why Charles Leclerc was not allowed to continue on the pre-established strategy by extending the stint with medium tires and then moving on to the final one all attacking with soft tires, a strategy identical to that of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, respectively fourth and second at the finish. The pit wall of Ferrari preferred to secure track position by avoiding Max Verstappen’s undercut, but the hard tires mounted on Charles Leclerc’s F1-75 car destroyed the race for the Monegasque driver, who was sixth at the finish line after having to return to the box for a third time to mount the red band tires. With 63 points ahead and a Sunday in which Max Verstappen started from the tenth position at a track like Hungaroring where it is not easy to overtake, it was easy to risk all the moves from the soft start to the two undercuts, as in Monaco, while on the other hand, Ferrari paid for the need to win by making a mistake. tactics in both the Principality and Budapest were attempts to secure victory.
Lewis Hamilton in the cool down room, addressing Max Verstappen, underlined the regret of not having copied the choices made by Red Bull and his teammate George Russell, as all three started with the soft compound. Toto Wolff had also already indicated that Ferrari paid dearly for the tire choices already used in free practice: “I don’t know why they didn’t start with the soft tire,” added the Austrian manager.
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