Ben Hunt is an award-winning motorsport journalist with over two decades of experience in Formula 1 and international media. As a former editor-in-chief and bestselling author, he delivers in-depth analysis and strategic insight from the highest level of the sport.
Ferrari was not alone in gambling on slicks at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Lando Norris has explained why McLaren made the same call. He said enough rivals were on dry tyres to make the choice look right, and that he did not fully trust the intermediates.
The race at Sepang started after over a 90 minutes delay and while the circuit looked like it was drying, the intermediates turned out to be the tyre to have in the opening laps.
However, Ferrari started both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc on slicks. Team boss Frederic Vasseur later called it a 50-50 decision, as he defended his team's decision.
McLaren split its cars before the start
McLaren also sent both cars out on slicks as the team then changed its mind early and pitted Oscar Piastri before the standing start so he could switch back to intermediates. Norris stayed out on slicks, and so did both Ferraris.
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Norris started on the medium tyre from fifth on the grid and had dropped to 16th by the time it was clear that intermediates were the better choice. Leclerc pitted at the end of the first lap. Hamilton and Norris both decided to stay out and see their gamble through.
By the end of lap eight, the slick runners were lapping as fast as the cars on intermediates. Valtteri Bottas then went off, which gave the drivers on intermediates a chance to switch to slicks with a pitstop.
Norris doubted the intermediates on his reconnaissance lap
Norris admitted he knew the call was risky. He said the number of drivers on slicks was a big part of why the idea looked convincing.
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It felt maybe a little bit of a risk, because a slick on a wet track is always a bit of a risk. There was enough people on it that it was quite convincing at the time that it was possibly going to be the right decision.- Lando Norris
The tyres themselves added to the doubt. Norris reported that his intermediates were already suffering on Sepang's rough surface during the reconnaissance laps to the grid. He also said McLaren knew little about how that tyre worked on its car.
I think a bit of it is also the fact we've never driven on the inter before and pushed on it, so it was hard for us to understand if it was like genuine, [if] the tyres were amazing or not.- Lando Norris
"That also led to our decision, but in the end we got it wrong and I probably should have boxed at the end of the first lap, but we wanted to take the gamble," the McLaren driver added.
Stella: the track took longer to dry than expected
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Team principal Andrea Stella told reporters that McLaren was caught out by how slowly the track dried, despite the heat. "On this kind of tarmac the intermediate tyres were getting damaged very, very rapidly and the dry tyres worked much more easily than pretty much every other circuit. But as a matter of fact, it took more laps than we thought."
McLaren's general lack of pace made the wrong call cost less than it might have. Piastri finished sixth, where he started. Norris was running behind him until he had to take avoiding action under the late Safety Car, which pushed him back to 11th. He recovered to finish ninth.
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