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Three-time F1 Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert criticized Ferrari for their strategy in the 2022 F1 British GP that essentially cost Charles Leclerc a win at Silverstone last weekend.
During Lap 39, Esteban Ocon was forced to retire from the race, which brought out the safety car. While Ferrari asked Carlos Sainz to pit, the Monegasque was asked to remain in the lead and stay out. Sainz and Lewis Hamilton, who were second and third at the time, came out on fresh soft tires and had an undeniable advantage over Leclerc.
Describing how Ferrari have a tendency to make such errors, Herbert said:
“It has been a bit of a historic thing with Ferrari, making these sort of errors, especially this season but it has happened many times in the past and they somehow need to regroup back at Maranello, really bang their heads together, and somehow have a proper idea going into the race weekend, Austria coming up obviously next weekend, that they do not get themselves in this situation.”
“If this is a race fan thinking it’s a crazy call, how do they not see that themselves when they’ve got all the information in the world right in front of them and back in Maranello at the same time, but they still make the same mistakes! That’s the unbelievable thing and that’s the strength of Red Bull for sure and with Mercedes as well. So that’s where they [Ferrari] are lacking at the present time.”
Although Leclerc had yet another disappointing result thanks to Ferrari's strategy, Sainz had the perfect end to the weekend, clinching his maiden race win at the 2022 F1 British GP.
Ferrari provide an explanation for choosing not to pit Charles Leclerc at the 2022 F1 British GP
Ferrari received plenty of criticism over their strategy to keep Charles Leclerc out, while Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz pitted for soft tires towards the second half of the 2022 F1 British GP. Team boss Mattia Binotto, however, defended the strategy, insisting that there was no time for a double stack pit stop.
As reported by F1.com, the Italian said:
“As far as we believe, we didn’t think we had enough space between the two cars to stop both of them, so we had to make a choice between the first and the second car. So we decided to stop Carlos [Sainz] in P2 because Charles [Leclerc] had got the track position. He was leading and remained leader of the race at that time. You don’t know what the others would have done if you’d stopped as a leader. For us it was clear, not stopping Charles and keeping track position, and stopping Carlos which was the only one we could have stopped. And then we were hoping for more tyre degradation on the soft, sadly that didn’t happen.”
When asked if Sainz could back the others while Leclerc was brought into the pits, Binotto said:
“We thought not, as simple as that. Because the others were just behind and you cannot lose any not even a second at the pitstop trying to organise it. So, it was clear we keep track position with Charles and stop Carlos. Obviously, we (have) the insight now (that) being on soft would have been better but that’s not what we thought was the right decision.”
Charles Leclerc eventually finished the race in fourth and missed out on the podium to Lewis Hamilton.
