Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel’s alternate strategy to Mercedes was one of the prime reasons for the German to lose out to Lewis Hamilton in 2018 Formula 1 Hungarian GP.
Vettel started on soft compound to Hamilton’s ultrasoft – in fact, the German along with Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo were the only one’s in the Top 6 to start on the yellow-coloured tyres. The Australian was starting from 13th though.
Naturally, both went deep in the race. Surprisingly, Hamilton decided to elongate his first stint as well. The British driver pitted on Lap 25 with Vettel pitting on Lap 39. The German was looking good, even to beat Valtteri Bottas in the pits.
However, Vettel was stuck in traffic just before his stop and then a slow work by Ferrari allowed Bottas to still stay ahead which pretty much ended his chance to fight Hamilton in the latter stages.
The German conceded that the ultrasoft tyres actually worked well on Sunday than it was on Friday, which did limit Vettel’s chances. “In the first stint, I had a good start, obviously,” he said. “We knew we had to try to do something different.
“I think, as it turned out, probably Valtteri was taking it too easy and obviously, Lewis was able to pull away comfortably. Then, I think, looking back, despite the hot temperatures and so on, I think the ultrasoft worked probably better than we all expected.
“Obviously, we tried to do something different with the soft and the fact that the ultrasoft lasted very well in the beginning, like Lewis’ pace showed, and also at the end for me, the tyres felt like new once I was ahead of Valtteri.
“Even though I spent so many laps in traffic, it showed that I think the ultrasoft worked better. So, that didn’t help to close the gap but I think we did what we could. We effectively passed Valtteri for P2.
“But then I think I got a bit unlucky with the traffic and lost a couple of seconds, and then obviously we had that little issue at the pitstop, so we ended up coming out behind – and then it was a different race.
“For sure we knew from the start that qualifying, where we qualified, we tried to do something different, I was happy to do that and I think the pace showed that we were good.
“I think if you compare the stint on the soft to the other cars, obviously we were different fuel loads and mirrored strategy but was very good. [As I said] something didn’t go as we planned [to come out behind Bottas].
“It was good that we were faster on an older tyre than Valtteri and pulled a gap. Then I think it’s a bit difficult to foresee the traffic and – knowing how well you go through traffic or not – and in that case I lost quite a lot. So that was one.
“I think looking back at the race, Lewis’ stint in the first part of the race with the ultrasofts, as I said, Lewis mentioned a crossover close to ten laps. I think the ultrasoft was a lot stronger in the race than it was on Friday, and then what we expected going on.
[But strategy wise] I think what we did was OK. [Although] as it turned out, with the circumstances and so on, we lost out and we came out behind. Surely, that didn’t help. I think without that it would have been a much more relaxed last part of the race.
“Probably [even] hunting down Lewis, but with the gap that he had, I think it would have been difficult to catch – and then it’s a completely different story, especially around here to overtake.
“So I think we could have done the catching bit but not really the overtake, so, in the end it doesn’t change much to the final result. Just that it was a bit more work than coming out ahead,” he explained.
[Read also: Key Hungarian GP stats]
