MONTE CARLO —
Ferrari on Monday launched a
probe into the sequence of errors that combined to undermine their hopes of
winning the Monaco Grand Prix where they held pole position and led the race.
اضافة اعلان
Team boss
Mattia Binotto departed the Mediterranean
principality determined to ensure his team carried out an honest, transparent,
and positive investigation of their strategic decision-making problems.
Home hero Charles Leclerc had started the rain- and
crash-hit race ahead of Ferrari team-mate
Carlos Sainz and the pair led the
opening laps, but a series of misjudgments and bad calls cost them on a track
where overtaking is almost impossible.
As they bungled their key decisions, rivals
Red Bull took control with an aggressive strategy that handed an emotional maiden Monaco
victory to Mexican Sergio Perez, the third win of his career.
For 24-year-old Monegasque Leclerc it meant he
remained without a victory in his home event, even if he had the consolation of
finishing his home race for the first time after finishing fourth behind Sainz
and world champion Max Verstappen in the second Red Bull.
Ultimately, as Binotto conceded, Red Bull had given
Ferrari lessons in making strategic decisions under pressure during a difficult
race in changing conditions. Both Red Bull drivers used superior pit-stop
tactics to pass their direct rival in the race.
“We certainly made mistakes in our judgments and we
made mistakes in our calls,” said Binotto “The first was underestimating the
pace of the intermediate tire and the gap we had to the other cars, in terms of
track position. It’s something we need to look at.
“We’ve had our briefing with the drivers, we went
through it, we had discussions, tried to understand, but believe me, it was
quite a complicated one. It was not an obvious one, but certainly, we made a
mistake.”
He admitted that Ferrari erred in failing to bring
in Leclerc earlier than they did. “Or we should have stayed out on the wet
tires to protect our position and then switch directory to the dry tires,” he
added.
“That main mistake is straightforward. But what was
the process that took us to that? It will take some more time to look at it and
have a clear explanation.”
He conceded: “We were leading the race here in
Monaco and you should be in position, if not keeping the lead, at least
finishing second. Finishing fourth shows we did something wrong... it’s not a
matter of being unlucky.”
Ferrari’s tactical capitulation has left the Italian
team without a win in Monaco since four-time champion Sebastian Vettel’s
triumph in 2017 — their only victory in 20 visits since seven-time champion
Michael Schumacher’s fifth and final win in 2001.
It also cost Leclerc an ideal opportunity to regain the
initiative in the drivers’ championship which Verstappen now leads by nine
points with 125 to his 116. Perez on 110 moved up to third.
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