One more Sunday, the fastest driver did not win, but the one who drives for the best team did. This is the inside story of a new strategic failure for Ferrari – combined with a touch of bad luck – and the proof that Red Bull is the best team on the grid.
In Formula 1 there is a tendency to think that having the best car is the most important thing, but Ferrari is being the latest team to show that many more things come into play and that success is not based solely on speed of the single-seater.
This year, the Ferrari F1-75 it is the fastest car on the grid: so the data says. However, Red Bull dominates with an iron fist both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. And this is mainly due to two factors: his car is more reliable and his human team is much more competent.
“There is no way we are going to start with the hard ones”
This last statement is valid and visible in two crucial aspects for the result of a race: pit stops and strategy. While those from Milton-Keynes dominate the pit stops for another year, those from Maranello alternate brilliant maneuvers with disastrous ones. too many.
And when it comes to strategy, the Hungarian Grand Prix once again revealed that the team led by Iñaki Rueda (strategy director) is leaking everywhere.
A bag in Carlos Sainz’s car
But we will start this analysis with the bit of bad luck that Ferrari had. And it is that, when being in the closed park, Charles Leclerc warned Carlos Sainz of what he had hooked on the gills of his #55 Ferrari: a plastic bag that had slipped through the interior and covered several of the cooling slits.
Loading tweet…
1553990423861141504
Carlos Sainz later commented on it to the media, acknowledging that he had discovered it “When I got out of the car, there was a plastic bag on the side of the car.. I don’t know if it was costing me downforce because it was quite big.”
This perhaps explains in part why Sainz was not on the same level as Leclerc in race pace having completed a very good weekend so far. A circumstance that led the man from Madrid to minimize the importance of the questionable strategy and that gave Binotto the perfect excuse to divert attention from what happened.
“My car was not working as expected. I don’t know what we could have done better in the strategy, but I can say that when the rhythm is bad, as it was today, the strategy is always difficult»said the Spaniard to the media displaced to the Hungaroring.
In any case, the sack in Sainz’s car only appears in the photographs of the last relay from Madrid, when he had already mounted used soft tires to finish the race. It is unlikely that his pace was really influenced by this circumstance.
Max Verstappen’s pre-grid lap
This detail was indeed crucial and allowed to stage the tactical superiority of Red Bull with respect to Ferrari, a team much more rigid at the strategic level and that, therefore, suffers when the race conditions are not as expected.
As usual, the drivers came out of the pits to head to the grid on used soft tyres. It had been very hot on Friday at the Hungaroring and Ferrari had been intractable, but the rain on Saturday and the drop in temperatures changed the conditions of the track and left a more unpredictable Sunday.
When it was time to form the grid, the sky was completely cloudy and rain threatened, although it did not fall. On the pre-grill lapthe Red Bulls realized how much it cost to warm up the tyres, so they quickly decided to modify their strategy accordingly.
“Our strategy (starting with new hard drives) was not an option after the laps on the grid. We had to change it and make a new one. But I don’t think that will be very difficult for the team: they are very flexible and they know what they are doing,” said Max Verstappen after the race.
“I went out to the grid with the soft tires and I was already suffering with the grip. So I was like: “There is no way we are going to start with the hard ones”. I am very happy that I did it because the hard tire was very, very hard”, insisted the Dutchman.
Christian Horner endorsed the words of his driver, stating that «we were going to start the race with the hard tire because, statistically, it seemed our best option. But the drivers struggled to build up temperature in the soft tire en route to the grid. Y it seemed ridiculous to start the race with a hard tireespecially with the weather (clouds and low temperature)».
“We switched both drivers to the soft tyre, which required us to make two stops.. But today we have made it work, and it has gone very well, “Horner acknowledged.
“Choosing the right tires at the right time” was the key to victory. “Of course we know that our car in general is fast, but I think throughout the race Ferrari was also very fast, just they made the wrong decision with the hard tyre”he explained.
Ferrari ‘passes’ Leclerc
The last relevant fact was Ferrari’s lack of confidence in the wishes of Charles Leclerc. But before that, the Italian team was already floundering, because while Red Bull changed its strategy before the start, those from Maranello maintained their desire to start the race with new medium tyres.
This seemed like a good option at first, as they avoided the dreaded graining of the soft tires and also the problem of the hard ones. However, this posed an obligation: lengthen the first two relays to the maximum with means to finish with a short one with soft.
Loading tweet…
1553771725787082752
That was the initial plan and Leclerc was very quick with mediums, especially after beating Saizn in the pits. But, when Max Verstappen launched an attack from behind in the form of undercut on lap 38, he lost confidence in his plan and took cover stopping the Monegasque. That doomed him, as there were 31 laps left that he could only complete with the hard guys…blunder.
«We have only done five or six laps with the hard tire because it was undrivable (editor’s note: it was 15 laps), I felt good with the medium. We have made a different decision, we have to analyze it, “said Charles Leclerc after the race.
“Red Bull chose the tires well, there is not much more to say”, he insisted. The Monegasque did not understand why his team had ignored his request to stay on track as long as the medium tires worked well.
an unexpected victory
Max Verstappen admitted to being absolutely surprised by the victory after starting tenth in the race, a triumph that was forged in the successes of Red Bull and, above all, in the failures of Ferrari.
«No, the truth is that I did not think that we would win! I was hoping to get close to the podium, but the conditions were very difficult. I think we have had a very good strategy, we have been very reactive and we have always entered the pits at the right time, “admitted the Dutchman.
“In the end, even with a 360, we won the race”he concluded, referring to a spin he suffered during the race that forced him to overtake Leclerc on the track for the second time.
Ferrari has the best car. But also a lot to learn before being eligible to win the championship again.
Photos: Red Bull Content Pool | Scuderia Ferrari