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Ferrari explained that the choice for intermediate tyre with Charles Leclerc in Q3 was a split strategy decision based on the forecasted rain coming in.
Ferrari have yet again made headlines due to their strategy decisions. Leclerc came out in Q3 with the inters while everyone else on the grid was on softs. Though the inters were selected because of the rain, the track was dry enough to run on slicks.
The Monegasque’s Ferrari was effectively the slowest car on track, to which Leclerc was disappointed saying:
“We were expecting some rain which never came. I will speak with the team and try to understand what we can do better in those conditions. But I’m extremely disappointed. The pace was there.”
Ferrari have explained that the benefits they calculated from this split decision were, in the moment, worth it. They said that had the rain come in as forecasted, the track would’ve been good for inters.
Laurent Mekies:
Laurent Mekies, Ferrari Race Director, said that though it’s a rule of thumb to go for slicks on a track that is still dry, this was a chance that Ferrari wanted to take. He said
“It’s a bit frustrating because we got both cars into Q3, and then we were confronted with a tough choice.”
“On one side, you have the track still being dry. And there is a golden rule that says that you should go for that track while it is dry. On the other side, we were expecting heavy rain imminently. Therefore, at the end of the day, we have split our cars [strategy].”
While Leclerc went out on the intermediate compound, teammate Carlos Sainz, was on the slicks, hence split strategy. Mekies said that it was risky and that one of the two would’ve either way been disappointed.
“You always know, at that very moment where your cars are going out that, depending on the exact timing of the rain, it’s going to be one happy man and one unhappy man. That’s exactly what happened.”
“The rain came probably a minute or two too late for Charles, and was probably the right timing for Carlos who was second on track. It’s the way it is: P5 and P10. It’s the start of a long, long weekend.”
Mekies said Ferrari will analyze what went wrong in their strategy at the São Paulo Grand Prix Qualifying and hopefully for them, bounce back.
“We have had many, many good qualifyings this year, including in very tricky conditions like today.”
“But in this sort of difficult situation, there is always a lot to learn about the right decisions to make and about the less right.
“Certainly it’s something that we have taken on board, with good habits, to analyse in detail with teams with drivers and pull together to always look at after. We will use today to make another step together.“
Carlos Sainz Jr. comments on Q3:
“We tried to be starting the queue first. But we lost quite a bit of time behind Charles and we lost a lot of time to Kevin [Magnussen]. This meant that he had probably a drier track than us at that point.
“I tried to push a lot and probably over pushed. I did a couple of big mistakes, like big moments. that probably cost me P2/P3.”
He added: “Today we survived the very tricky conditions and we need to review a couple of things as a team, but we will try to be better next time.”
Headline Image Credit: @FerrariF1FRA on Twitter