Source: Ferrari Media

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Hakkinen: Ferrari can't afford any more battles between drivers

Hakkinen: "Ferrari can't afford any more battles between drivers"

06-09-2018 15:12
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Two-time Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen thinks that Ferrari can't afford any more mishaps if they want to win any of the two championships this season, as the Italians trail Mercedes with seven races to go.

Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had a bit of a run-in at Monza last weekend, with Raikkonen having pole position, but Vettel trying to overtake him in the first corner of the race. Raikkonen defended his position, leaving Vettel exposed to be attacked by Lewis Hamilton, who was in third. Hamilton did attack, and Vettel ran into him, effectively ending the German's chances of winning. Hamilton eventually also overtook Raikkonen, and extended his championship lead to 30 points.

"This was a great performance from Kimi, but a bad result for Sebastian because apparently, the Ferrari contracts give preference to whichever driver is on pole," Hakkinen explained in his column on Unibet.

"If this is true, it was a mistake of leadership and strategy on Ferrari’s part not to sit down with Kimi and Sebastian on Saturday night and plan how to run the race.

"They really did not need to be fighting each other going into the first corner, and when Kimi naturally defended - which he is entitled to do - it put Sebastian off-line."

Because of this, the margin of error is now zero for Ferrari. If they want to win any championships, that is.

"There are seven races remaining in this year’s World Championship and Ferrari cannot afford to have further battles between their drivers, mistakes by Sebastian or errors in race strategy.

"To beat Lewis, Valtteri and the Mercedes team, Ferrari now needs to do a perfect job every weekend and hope that Mercedes has some problems."