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Ferrari's decision to pit Carlos Sainz for the second time at the 2022 F1 French GP, and the timing of it, didn't make sense to TV pundit Jolyon Palmer. The former F1 driver was unsure what the thought process was behind the Scuderia's decision to bring in the Spaniard while battling Red Bull's Sergio Perez for a podium position.
Recapping the turn of events at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Palmer said:
“The problem with that option (an early second pitstop) was that the pit stop loss was immense – comfortably the biggest of the season – because a 60kph pit lane speed limit had been extended on Friday. On top of this, Sainz had a five-second penalty to take for an unsafe release. Any pit stop would have dropped him out of contention in reality, but at least an early one at this point would have given him a better hope of fighting back on new tires.”
“Instead, Ferrari appeared unsure on what to do, before finally asking Sainz to pit as he was wheel-to-wheel with Perez in a long-awaited move – much to the driver’s frustration. Ferrari reversed the call once they saw what was happening and Sainz gained the place.”
The Briton then went on to say:
“At this stage of the race, there were 11 laps to go and Sainz clearly had more pace than Sergio Perez, who was struggling with front tire wear. The decision to box Carlos on the next lap didn’t make sense to me, given he had just gained the crucial track position.”
“It’s always difficult for a driver to override the orders from the team, because you know they have all the information available to them and for the strategists, this should be their bread and butter. They turn up with one job to do for the entire weekend, so they should know best. We are all human though, and occasional mistakes are inevitable.”
Carlos Sainz should have overruled Ferrari's pit call: Jolyon Palmer
According to Jolyon Palmer, Carlos Sainz should have overruled Ferrari's pit call, similar to the way he did so at the Silverstone and Monaco races. The Briton said:
“But Sainz has already overridden calls correctly and got himself into victory-contending positions in Monaco and Silverstone (where he finally brought the win home). As far as I’m concerned, he should have done it again in France.”
Palmer also claimed to be unsure if Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto's explanation added up, as the Italian reasoned that his team was worried about the excessive degradation on Sainz's car. He said:
“Mattia Binotto told the media that they were worried that the medium tyre wouldn’t make the end so cautiously took the safe option and pitted Carlos – Carlos also toeing the party line in the post-race interviews.”
“Of course, Binotto may have been right: the medium tyre may not have made it to the end, but I still can’t see the justification for the pit stop at the moment it happened. Either Ferrari had to realise this much earlier and pit their driver before he lost time fighting with Perez, or more obviously they had to leave him out until there were at least some signs that Carlos was starting to drop with degradation.”
At the end of the day, the team added another incident to its long list of mishandled race strategies this season.
