Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Formula 1 team boss, claims the race victory slipped out after the restart of Mexican Grand Prix. He blamed the team’s strategy to opt for hard tyres rather than medium for Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc had a great start on medium tyres and had good pace despite a damaged front wing. Sergio Perez and the Monégasque driver clashed at the start of the race for the better position.
The clash pushed the Mexican to retire who wished to win the race against his team-mate, Max Verstappen. Ferrari asked its driver to pit for hard tyres few laps before Magnussen crashed. The crashed brought the race to a halt with a red flag.
During the break, Ferrari replaced Leclerc’s damaged front wing. Additionally, it opted to switch from medium to hard tyres for second half of the race.
The team bid for no further pit stops but Leclerc could not manage the tyres properly. SLewis Hamilton who opted for medium slicks took the position from the Ferrari driver.
The Monégasque and team-mate Carlos Sainz finished third and fourth behind Verstappen and Hamilton.
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Ferrari rival Red Bull believed the team would opt for mediums to challenged poleman, Verstappen.
Christian Horner, Red Bull boss, said: “I was convinced they were going to take a set of mediums. Because it’s worth about five metres off the startline.
“So I was very surprised that they went with the hard tyre. We saw the medium on Hamilton, and it was ok in the end.”
Vasseur explained the strategy that Leclerc performed well despite damaged wing.
“My feeling from the pit wall is that the first stint was okay,” said the Frenchman. “We were three or four-tenths from Max, with the damage on the car. It was I think almost a good stint.
“But with the hard, we were never able to restart the tyres, and we were always on the shy side, and it didn’t work at all.”
He believed that medium wasn’t an option. He explained: “Honestly not, because think we had to restart for 35 laps or something like this. And we were not expecting to be able to do 35 laps.
“And I think Max also with the medium. Probably the tyre management, due to the management of the engine and the brakes and so on, helped [others]. But it was ambitious. And the set of medium that we had was a scrubbed one.”
