Ferrari “realised only very late” about Charles Leclerc’s strategy

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binnoto has admitted that they “realised only very late” that the two-stop strategy they put Charles Leclerc on would not pay off after Mercedes “took some risks to win”.

Leclerc started at the front and led during the opening stages of the race before pitting to cover Red Bull’s Alex Albon on a two-stop strategy.
 
His Ferrari teammate, Sebastian Vettel and both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were all on one-stop strategies which became evident was the preferred choice throughout the race.

Despite Hamilton pitting much earlier than Vettel and Bottas the Brit’s hard tyres didn’t wear as expected by Ferrari, preventing both their drivers from catching.

“I think we realized only very late,” Binotto said (quoted by Racer).

“When Charles stopped for us it was still too early to gamble on the one stop, it would have been too risky, not only for tyre degradation but for tyre wear as well, you can look and analyze at the data.

“Certainly the gamble they (Mercedes) did was the right gamble, they took some risks to win and I think the risks went to their merit, that’s the way it is.

“Maybe we should have taken more risks – it’s difficult to judge, after the result it’s easy to say yes.

“After Friday and Saturday, we were certainly not expecting such a long life on the tyres. We need to look back why it behaves like that, something to learn.

“But I think everyone was quite surprised, I think even the people pitting early for one-stop took a gamble, I don’t think that was their initial intention.”