Ferrari’s disastrous strategy, Binotto’s punishing comments, victory with a bitter taste: What made the Italian team upset its fans?

Sainz not only slowed down his teammate, but also the third Hamilton was faster and faster in each lap. According to F1 live timing, Hamilton beat Sainz’s times by two, three and four tenths of a second respectively. In the sixteenth circuit, the seven-time world champion clocked half a second faster time.

In retrospect, however, this situation was not as crucial for Ferrari as the moments that followed. Yes, Leclerc had the pace to pull away from Sainz with Hamilton within seconds to build a comfortable lead. This too was a factor that would make it easier for the Italian team to make decisions regarding pit stops later in the race.

Sainz was the first Ferrari to call into the pits, and he dropped to third place. It should be noted that in that 21st lap, Hamilton had only 2.5 seconds on the leader Leclerc. The Ferrari pilot went to his mechanics at the end of the 25th lap, when his lead over the second Hamilton was only eight tenths of a second.

Wasted time, even if this wasn’t so critical yet.

Hamilton leads the Grand Prix for the first time this season

After the stops of both Ferrari drivers, Hamilton, who led the race for the first time this year, took over the lead. And it was then that the Italian stable decided on a special strategic decision. Leclerc dropped to third behind Sainz after his stop

But Leclerc’s pace was faster again, instead of the classic team direction, where the team instructs the drivers to swap their positions, Ferrari let both their drivers race. Although Leclerc was faster than Hamilton and his teammate.

Ferrari only realized this in the 31st lap, when Sainz let Leclerc in front of him. After about four laps, the Monaco driver had a lead of two seconds on Sainz. When imagining how safe a lead Leclerc could have created with an ideal team strategy, it seems to get Ferrari fans out of their seats. Another wasted time.

Hamilton pitted on lap 34, dropping back to third. However, he lost only 2.2 seconds to the second Sainz at the exit from the pit lane. Fortunately for Ferrari, this deficit grew to 4.2 seconds before Hamilton managed to warm up the hardest tire compound.

Here we have to objectively appreciate Hamilton’s work with the tires, who pulled off this stint solidly. At this time he had 13 laps fresher tires than Sainz, 8 more than Leclerc.

At the end of the 38th lap, the leader Leclerc built up a four-second advantage over Sainz, who, on the other hand, was reducing the lead over the third Hamilton (at this time it was only two seconds). In the thirty-ninth circuit, when Esteban Ocon stopped his Alpine on the Hangar straight and the race management called the safety car to the track, Hamilton reduced Sainz’s lead to 1.4 seconds. Leclerc increased his lead over his teammate by 7 tenths of a second.

Massive criticism of Ferrari not only from experts, but also from their fans

And here comes the most crucial mistake of the whole race. Of course from the point of view of Ferrari and its fans. The Italian team had about nine seconds to tell Leclerc over the team radio that he was to go to his mechanics to switch to the softest and fastest tire specification.

But as it seems, Ferrari’s hesitation knows no bounds. So the team left Leclerc on the race track with worn hard tires, which are nowhere near as grippy as the softest set. At a press conference later, team boss Mattia Binotto stated that Leclerc was kept on the track due to the so-called “track position”, i.e. for fear that Leclerc would lose the win.

However, this argument angered many fans of Ferrari itself and many experts were also surprised by it. Including Sky Sports commentators. However, a worse statement from Binotto came later, when the 52-year-old Italian said that Ferrari “are not fighting for the title, but they are about being competitive.”

After all, this is something that the experts announced before the season and also often during the season itself. The political side and decision-making processes – this is currently Ferrari’s big weakness. So why is the argument that Ferrari was worried about track position undesirable?

During the safety car, Leclerc had a lead of 9 seconds over the second Sainz and about eleven seconds and two ahead of the third Hamilton. This matter has three levels. The first is that pilots in the state of activated safety car must follow the set speed. Therefore, the amount of time ahead of the next driver in order to be able to calmly make the necessary pit stop is greatly reduced.

Second, Ferrari had plenty of room for a double pit-stop thanks to Leclerc’s lead over the second Sainz. After all, Sainz pitted together with Hamilton and kept his second place after the stop. But you wonder what would have happened if Hamilton had stayed on the track and taken first place thanks to a pit stop by both Ferrari drivers?

Simply probably nothing, as we saw how the hardest worn tires performed on Leclerc’s car after the restart. In short, Mercedes would have nothing to gain by keeping Hamilton on the track, as all the drivers behind him, including Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris, were on the fastest compound.

It would therefore be a matter of time before Hamilton would be overtaken by both Ferrari pilots, whose cars worked great on the red fastest set, and also by Pérez, and it is a question whether Hamilton would not fall behind Alonso or Norris as well.

In short, the seven-time world champion also had to stop if he wanted to aim for the podium at his home Grand Prix. And in the event of a double Ferrari pit stop, the Italian team would remain in the first two places.

Restart of the British Grand Prix

Before the restart on lap 43, the order of the top six was as follows: Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Pérez, Alonso, Norris. Except for Leclerc, everyone made a pit stop due to switching to a red set of tires.