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Ferrari's leadership has been questioned by former F1 driver Marc Surer after multiple strategic blunders by the Scuderia thus far in the 2022 season.
The Scuderia have the fastest car on the grid this year but have not been able to maximize their chances in races. Reliability issues and driver errors have played a role in hindering their progress, but their strategy calls have been baffling on multiple occasions.
Charles Leclerc missed out on the opportunity to convert his pole at the 2022 F1 Monaco GP into a win owing to an erroneous call into the pits. Then there was the hard-tired horror show at the Hungaroring that left the collective F1 world scratching its head. Max Verstappen won from P10 while neither Ferrari could even get on the podium despite starting in second and third.
Ferrari nearly shot themselves in the foot at Silverstone and would have missed out on a win if Carlos Sainz had not overridden the strategists towards the end of the race. The Spaniard also had a potential podium snatched away in France while the Scuderia waited to bring him in for his final pit stop.
Marc Surer, who drove in F1 between 1979 and 1986, believes these botched strategy calls are at the heart of Ferrari's inconsistencies in the 2022 F1 season. In an interview with Formel1 in Germany, the 70-year-old said:
“The strategists should be fired. You can really only shake your head at the fact they just manage to make the wrong decision again and again. I’d fire all the strategy people! How you can get so much wrong, it’s unbelievable.”
The Swiss veteran continued sarcastically:
“Yeah, if you put the wrong tyres on. He was leading the race before – it’s really too slow… But somehow someone from the top should actually say something – ‘what are they actually doing? We have the fastest car in the field’.”
Mattia Binotto does not believe Ferrari's strategy calls are their weakness
Despite criticism from multiple fronts, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has continued to staunchly defend his strategists over the summer break.
The strategy team, led by Spanish engineer Iñaki Rueda, has come under intense scrutiny for their gaffes this season that have cost both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz valuable points.
In an interview with Motorsport, Binotto was asked if the strategists have been a weak link in the Prancing Horse's campaign this year. The Italian said:
“I think there’s always a way of improving ourselves. You cannot be perfect, and you will never be perfect. So no doubt, we need to improve ourselves on the aero, chassis, power unit, on strategy or whatever we can. But having said that, I think I have got a great team on the strategy, and I do not feel it’s a weakness.”
Ferrari are currently second in the World Constructors' Championship standings, with Red Bull 97 points ahead of them as we approach the 2022 F1 Belgian GP at the end of the month.
