Jolyon Palmer questions why Ferrari made their plan so complicated

Jolyon Palmer, a former Formula 1 driver, questions why Ferrari made their plan so complicated during the Russian Grand Prix. The plan to turn a one-three into a one-two failed and ultimately caused more problems. Palmer talks through his thoughts about the situation in his latest column. 

He isn't the only pundit analysing the latest developments between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg used his latest vlog post to look into their relationship developments over the last two weeks and links them to his own partnership with Lewis Hamilton. 

Palmer insists it was a good plan to have and believes it initially worked, but it the team bosses at Ferrari needed to make it less complicated and more clean-cut for both drivers. 

"They used Leclerc to give a slipstream to Vettel on the long run down to Turn Two, the first proper corner, in a bid to get the German past Hamilton. The idea was that Leclerc would not defend against Vettel into the corner, to give him the absolute best chance of passing Hamilton, and then Vettel would hand the lead back to Leclerc," Palmer said in his latest BBC column. 

"It worked - but immediately led to problems, when Vettel refused to give back the lead. You have to question why Ferrari needed to make things so complicated. It was fine to have Leclerc hold his line for a while to ensure Vettel drifted past Hamilton, but the problems started with not giving Leclerc the chance to then move to the inside and naturally defend his lead.

"That overcomplicated things in a bid to cover off all angles and made the situation unnecessarily awkward for Ferrari. Had Leclerc stayed to the left initially, and then moved to the right to defend the inside into Turn Two, he was likely to have kept the lead even though Vettel had a very significant overlap."

We've probably not seen the end of the politics at Ferrari and certainly not the end of the repercussions. Mattia Binotto needs to go and ask Toto Wolff how he managed the two Mercedes drivers in 2015 and 2016.