Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz discuss about their strategy in F1 British GP, as they and Frederic Vasseur dissect lack of pace.
What started off as a promising weekend in F1 British GP for Ferrari resulted in just three points as conservative strategy led them down after safety car intervention. The team also stopped earlier than the rivals which eventually didn’t work.
Since Leclerc didn’t run in FP2 and the team were not sure about using soft tyres due to degradation which is why they opted for medium and hard compounds. Even though the circuit is not their type due to the high speed corners, but they still did well until the race.
Leclerc felt that Ferrari were not too far off the pace, but Mercedes and McLaren had a little bit more. “We knew that this track was going to be one of our worst tracks just because of the high speed corners,” he said to media. “This is one of the weakness of the car. Honestly, not having the pace puts us in a situation that then is very tricky to manage whatever situation there is, so then it looks like bad luck.
“The timing of the safety car was definitely not the best for us and was beneficial for many other drivers, but at the end that’s life. We just didn’t have the pace. It’s not like we degraded the tyres more than others, it’s just that Mercedes and McLaren were stronger than us.
“I managed to keep George behind for the first part of the race, then we pitted for George not to pit and undercut us, but that was too early. Then we had the Safety Car once I started pushing on the Hard, and we got undercut by most most of the people,” summed up Leclerc, as teammate Sainz was not too sure about the strategy.
He seemingly had more pace than Leclerc and eventually found himself ahead of him under the safety car but with the Spaniard staying on the hard tyre, it undone his strategy as after re-start he lost out to Sergio Perez and the Monegasque to be only 10th.
“I genuinely think I was 50:50 with the strategy,” said Sainz. “That’s why I left it to the team to decide because I really thought, ‘What do I prefer to be on?’ A soft in P10 knowing that I’m against same pace cars on softer medium tyres, which I am not going to have a tyre delta to pass so I’m P10. Or a P6 trying to hold on with a hard tyre?
“At the end, we tried the riskier one which we tried to hold on on a hard day against them, which I think was risky. But then I nearly made it work. So it is how it is. We expected the Mercedes to be quicker, which they were. We didn’t expect McLaren to be quicker, which they were. So in general we were not very strong out there.
“It was very windy, very tricky car to drive again, very difficult to be consistent in these conditions. Still was doing a pretty decent race, going long on the medium tyre, putting the hard on and coming back with a very strong pace. Then the safety car came out in the worst possible time for me because I had no tyres left.
“Boxing would have meant being P10, not boxing being P6, but with positions to loose. We tried to stay out there, made it work for three or four laps until Sergio in a Red Bull was always going to pass us. I was trying my best to hold on to that position. In the end, I was always going to be dead meat. No, I was on a used hard tyre use against fresh mediums and softs.
“I actually think I did pretty well to stay ahead until a Red Bull on a soft passed me. And then once they pass, you get a bit of dirt on the tyres and it’s always going to be tricky with all the cars on softer tyres,” summed up Sainz. The strategy was once again under scrutiny, but Ferrari chief Vasseur explained the idea behind it.
“We were fighting with Russell,” said Vasseur when asked about why they stopped Leclerc early. “After the race, it is quite easy to say we should have pushed more on the tyres and that we should have extended. When we put the hard with Charles, there was zero deg. Ten or 12 laps before the safety car.
“We should have push much more. It was a misunderstanding on the deg situation.This was coming from Friday. We were scared with the deg at the end. We decided to pit early if I have to do it again I wont do it,” summed up Vasseur as he then added on Sainz losing out to Perez and co eventually.
“I think he was fighting with Perez and when Perez overtook him he went quite wide,” said Vasseur. “At the end of the race there are lots of marbles everywhere and if you put a wheel outside of the line you are almost dead. And then you are dead on such a track. He was faster than Albon and Alonso at that point. It is difficult to overtake.”
Here’s George Russell passing Charles Leclerc: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-british-grand-prix-russell-takes-leclerc-with-brilliant-move-around-the-outside-at-luffield.1770956188517515198.html
Here’s Carlos Sainz losing places: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-british-grand-prix-sainz-loses-three-places-in-just-five-corners.1770957912034627122.html
Here’s how F1 British GP panned out