Ferrari strategist explains strange call to Sainz

Ferrari's strategy left much to be desired in France. Chief strategist of the Scuderia Iñaki Rueda says in a debrief on LinkedIn that a certain radio message addressed to Carlos Sainz was broadcast on TV at a strange moment and that it made more sense "live".

According to Rueda, the timing of the TV broadcast made it seem as if Ferrari were making a big mistake. Ferrari would have pulled Sainz in at the moment he reached the pit lane. Contrary to what many people think, Rueda says Ferrari had everything much more under control.

Strange timing by television

"The way that television production feeds the data to the viewers, it has a bit of a delay in it," Rueda explains. "In this case, you saw Perez and Carlos were fighting on lap 41." The strategist reveals that Sainz already received a signal from his team to come in at turn 10.

However, Sainz had other plans and thought he could overtake Perez, which he did not much later. "That call came on the television feed at turn 15, right after the pit entry. This is nonsensical, because do we call the driver so late he cannot actually react to our call?," Rueda concluded.