Scuderia Ferrari’s chief race strategy officer analyzes the Monaco Grand Prix. He explained that there were two mistakes in why Charles Leclerc of the home race sank from 1st to 4th place.
No one can attack Charles Leclerc’s failure to reach the podium, starting from pole position, but much has been criticized for Scuderia Ferrari at the expense of Leclerc’s chance to win the home race.
Scuderia Ferrari’s chief race strategy officer, Inaki Rueda, explained that the strategy began to unravel when Sergio Perez lapped earlier than expected.
“As for Charles, we made two mistakes, the first being to cover Perez,” Inaki Rueda told racer.com.
“On the other hand, for Carlos (Sainz), we realized that we couldn’t cover Perez very late in his lap. For Charles, there was a big gap and we thought we could cover Perez.”
“At the start of the in-lap, Charles had an advantage over Perez for more than 10 seconds. The intermediate tire Perez lapped much faster than the extreme (wet) Charles, so I think this advantage will diminish. rice field”
“We looked at others and got live data from the car, but thought that this gap would be reduced from about 10 seconds to 5 seconds, 4 seconds, and in the worst case 3 seconds. “
“When Charalul passed through the swimming pool, we found that the 10-second gap had shrunk to 7, 6, 5, and 4, so we put it in the pits. The last timing we referred to was He showed that he would come out a second earlier than Perez. “
“What we didn’t expect was that Perez would be 9 seconds faster overall on that lap, which is why we lost the race with Charles.”
Charles Leclerc’s afternoon was terribly worse when he also dropped out of the podium as a result of the team’s decision.
“The second mistake about Charles was again the Gap mistake,” said Inaki Rueda.
“We wanted to pit in to replace both cars with dry tires. On lap 21, the road surface was suitable for dry tires and we tried to put Carlos in to keep the race lead. I thought, “Put in Charles, undercut Perez and finish with P1 and P2.”
“When we came in, we were looking at our tools and the gap. The gap between our cars was 5 seconds. It was tight for” Doppio (double stop) “. Comfortable” Doppio ” Is done every 6 seconds between cars, but I thought 5 and a half seconds would be enough. “
“As the car approached the pit entry, the gap narrowed and it was only three and a half seconds at the pit entry. I tried to stay out to Charles at the last minute, but it was too late. He was already heading to the pit lane. “
“Charles lost two seconds in this” Doppio “. This was very important. Why? This allowed (Max) Verstappen to come in front of Charles one lap later.”
“Leave Monaco with a bittersweet aftertaste. I did some very good things, but I wasn’t too proud of some. I went back to the factory, analyzed what was right and what was wrong, and got the tools. Update. Our procedure, and this experience will ensure a stronger return. “
Charles Leclerc finished in 4th place, while Carlos Sainz finished in 2nd place for the second time in Monaco. Inaki Rueda said it was the team’s decision to switch to dry tires that gave Sainz a second-place finish.
“We had a very good race on Carlos,” said Inaki Rueda.
“He started in 2nd place and was leading the race after the first stop. The first plan was to cover Perez, but realized that it didn’t work, so at the last minute we went to Carlos. I instructed him to stay out. He did it right. “
“Furthermore, it was the first car to stop for a dry replacement at the top of Carlos, judging that dry tires could be the fastest on the road if the timing was right. This was a clear advantage to him. Gave”
“Unfortunately he got behind (Nicholas) Latifi, which cost him more than three seconds. I’m sure he would have won the race if he hadn’t been blocked by Latifi.”
Category: Category: F1 / Ferrari / F1 Monaco GP