Australian GP: Ferrari explain why Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc went to smooth tires in the late drama in Melbourne | F1 news
Ferrari boss Fred Vassur says the team simply made a “wrong call” as he explained why they gambled on to hold Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerca on smooth tires longer than their rivals in the late rainy stages of the Australian Grand Prix.
Leclerc and Hamilton ran on the sixth and eighth when a large slit of late races began to hit the Albert Park tracks with 13 rounds.
The leading McLarens soon escaped from the trail – with Oscar Piastri, then completely spinning – at the end of the circle 44, which was enough for the Lando Norris race leader to move straight toward the pit lane and move into medium tires.
Max Verstappen inherited the lead, staying out, but then, as the rain reinforced that the world champion had to go fingers around the track, Red Bull invited him to change his tires two circles later.
Ferrari, however, held drivers for a long time to a circle of 47, by then the security car was invited to collisions for Gabriel Bortoleto (Inters) and Liam Lawson (Slicks).
Until then, Hamilton and Leclerc, who were spinning in Circle 44 himself, ran in second and third place in line behind the Norris midfielder. But despite the acquired position, Ferrari decided that the conditions mean that they had no choice but to stop intermediaries before the racing again, which was the move that lowered the drivers to ninth and 10th.
But why are gambling in the first place?
“It was a strange situation because the sector one and two were still dry, and the three sector was completely moist and it was a type of bet. I think we are Red Bull and us, we bet on the fact that we have to stay on the road and wait for the last part of the Skating race,” Vassur said in Melbourne.
“When Mercedes and McLaren, but McLaren, is also because they came out that they had thrown out two rounds before.
“We called the wrong call because I think the best option was to make the same circle as Max and in this stage we made a wrong call.”
Did Ferrari inform the drivers of the rain enough?
After re -joined the track in ninth place, Hamilton told the team Radio to a new race engineer Riccard Adami: “I thought you said it wouldn’t be much rain? We just missed a great opportunity there.”
Leclerc, however, heard that his runner’s engineer had told him about the upcoming arrival of high -intensity rains “Class three”.
Asked about apparent conflicting messages between two cars, Vassur said, “Yes, but this is very difficult to not have a rain sensor, it means that it is more of a feeling, this is what we can see on the screen, which we can have on the radar, it is true from the corner to the corner.
“I think we were all surprised by the amount of rain at this stage of the race, McLaren, and now we discussed that we are on a trail with sliding and surviving, but that was the wrong call.”
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