In a post-race analysis where just about everyone is having a go at Ferrari, Sergio Perez says “in the heat of the moment mistakes can be made.”
Pundits, however, feel Ferrari are making too many.
The Scuderia’s latest contentious decision came in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix where, although Mattia Binotto insists the problem was pace not strategy, everyone including Charles Leclerc is questioning the latter.
The Monégasque driver was running up in P1 when Ferrari pitted him for hard tyres even though he felt he could continue for longer on his medium set.
Not only did his relinquish the lead, he was unable to get the hard tyres to work and quickly began to lose ground, passed by Max Verstappen and also George Russell.
Ferrari pitted him for a third time for a set of soft tyres but it was too little too late, he finished P6.
Monday’s headlines are, and not for the first time this season, a criticism of all things Ferrari. Perez feels it is unfair.
“After a race it’s always easy to point fingers and say what someone has done wrong,” he said as per Motorsport.com.
“In the heat of the moment mistakes can be made. The margins are minimal and so things like this happen.”
After such a strong start to the season and even though he's still sitting 2nd in the championship, Charles Leclerc has taken just one podium in the last eight races. Ouch. #F1 pic.twitter.com/hYMibtIvJt
— PlanetF1 (@Planet_F1) July 31, 2022
But while the Mexican driver has sympathy for Ferrari’s higher-ups, former drivers turned pundit believe time is up for Binotto.
While Ralf Schumacher said he is in “danger” of losing his job over the summer break, Johnny Herbert reckons something has to change.
“The result is embarrassing when you have such a fast car and could win everything,” he said as per F1-Insider. “It can not go on like this.
“Ferrari reacted wrong again under pressure.
“You now have to get the right people to do what Red Bull and Mercedes are doing.”
The Race’s Edd Straw says the biggest concern is that Ferrari are not learning from their mistakes.
“Forget today specifically,” he said, “what’s concerning is that Ferrari simply is not sharpening up on strategy.
“Today was a blindingly obvious example of Ferrari snookering itself having failed to recognise the hards were not the tyre to be on. That was clear even before the race – yet it seemed to come as a surprise.
“One blunder in isolation can happen. But time and time again Ferrari makes significant strategic errors.
“Mattia Binotto will defend the decisions, doubtless. But he needs to show some steel and make sure this is sharpened up.
“That doesn’t mean any scapegoating, simply a rigorous and honest analysis of what things are going wrong and appropriate actions to correct.”
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