So far, out of the four races, Ferrari haven’t been able to win even one. This leaves them to make the most of 17 opportunities ahead of them. This also means that they may or may not make full use of what lies ahead. This isn’t so for they don’t have the car or the resources on them. This is for the simple reason that in four races, none among Sebastian Vettel or Charles Leclerc has even managed a P2.
Doesn’t mean that things can’t change quickly. It’s just that their opposite numbers on the grid- regardless of whether you call them their anti-thesis to winning or their staunchest rivals, Mercedes- are in the form of their life.
It doesn’t really seem that Mercedes would sandbag. Not a chance, unless and until something really untoward or ghastly were to happens to the Silver Arrows.
And all that said, in a sport ever dependent on strategy, it doesn’t appear whether Ferrari have theirs thoroughly assessed or incisively drawn. Take, for instance, their strategy on Leclerc.
Questions at Baku following Charles Leclerc’s strategy
Two questions may keep Charles Leclerc fans and Ferrari backers uncomfortable for the times to come.
1) Why wasn’t Charles Leclerc made to begin on the softer compounds?
2) If they had to anyways do a 2-stop, why didn’t they pit the Monegasque driver, at a time when Charles was leading Bottas and Hamilton by over 15 seconds?
At the end of the day, the whole strategy of calling Charles to box quite late in the race, not before Lap 34, didn’t really serve the Scuderia well.
It, therefore, meant that the longer stint was a bit of a toothless call on Mercedes. Yet, you may be in for a surprise to know Charles Leclerc’s own version of the strategy; rather his take on it.
Apparently, Charles Leclerc has defended the Baku strategy. In an exclusive one-on-one that was conducted with Charles Leclerc, the man responsible for that fighting P3 at Bahrain, the Ferrari driver seemed to jump into the defence of the Mattia Binotto’s team call.
He shared the following:
“Well, I think a lot of people thought we were struggling, which I don’t think we were,” Leclerc said. “I just didn’t push to try and close the gap. I asked on the radio pretty early in the run whether there was any possibility to come back to the guys in front, and the answer was no because the gap was too big.
“From that moment onwards it was just about trying to keep the tires and try to push for the fastest lap when I had the opportunity to do so. Don’t look at the pace from when we put the softs, it’s not our real pace; we were just trying to do the best lap.”
The above told it can’t be ignored or sidelined that to a lot many following the proceedings closely, that Charles’ race was compromised due to the crash at Q2 on Saturday. The lower or weaker the grid position, the more challenging one’s chances to finish at the front-end of the grid, on Sunday- right?
A wise decision?
To that end, Leclerc, who had topped the practice session didn’t help himself one bit when he crashed at Turn 8 into the wall. A lot of this, it was debated, was down to the choice of the tire-compound the Ferrari driver was made to drive with.
Yet, it’s interesting that Charles Leclerc, just 21 years of age, has opted to view the Baku plan rationally, without taking anything in the wrong.
Surely, the man, it seems, is here to stay. He doesn’t seem to willing to throw in the towel to the fight to the Merc’s just yet. And why should he? The season has just begun. But hey Charles, we gotta go, like now.