Why Ferrari’s strategy team could cost them the F1 world title

Ferrari have the quickest car over one lap on the 2022 Formula 1 grid. Not even Red Bull can match the Scuderia over one lap. To prove that, Charles Leclerc has eight pole positions to his name this year in just 12 races. But after all, unless it’s a sprint race weekend, no points are handed out on a Saturday, so qualifying is much of a muchness if Sunday’s result doesn’t match up.

Over the entirety of his F1 career, Leclerc now has 16 pole positions, winning just four times in those races. Now, while the 2022 French Grand Prix was a self-admitted driver error, although it may well have actually been a car issue, his team have cost him plenty of times and it’s harmed his title chances.

Ferrari’s reliability has been a talking point for a while now. And so it should. The Prancing Horses have designed a super quick car. But the side effect of that design is a lack of reliability. That in itself has cost both Leclerc and Sainz on multiple occasions this season, but that’s a topic for another day.

This is all about their strategy errors, which need to be on point given the aforementioned unreliable car, but that hasn’t been the case.